4 Aug 2013

Mugabe confirmed as president

8:37 am on 4 August 2013

The Election Commission in Zimbabwe has confirmed Robert Mugabe has won a further five-year term as president.

Mr Mugabe, 89, won 61% of the vote, against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's 34%.

The election commission also said on Saturday the Zanu-PF party led by Mr Mugabe had won a two-thirds majority in the House: 158 seats to 49.

That majority will allow his government to change the constitution.

Mr Tsvangirai earlier said the elections for parliament and president were fraudulent and promised to take legal action.

He said the Movement for Democratic Change would no longer work with the Zanu-PF party. The BBC reports the two parties have been working together in a coalition since the last election in 2008.

Mr Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe was "in mourning".

"The fraudulent and stolen election has launched Zimbabwe into a constitutional, political and economic crisis," he said.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a group of domestic monitors, said problems with voter registration had left up to one million people unable to cast their ballots, most of them in MDC strongholds.

However, the BBC reports the African Union and SADC, am African regional bloc, broadly endorsed the election and South Africa challenged critics to produce evidence of ballot fraud.

Mr Mugabe has been president since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.

Offshore comment

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain had grave concerns about the conduct of the election.

Mr Hague said there were "serious" questions about the credibility of the election, because of irregularities both in the run-up to the ballot and on polling day.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the results did not represent the will of the country's citizens.