THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declared incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner in the presidential race after polling 52,6% against his nearest rival Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) who garnered 44%.
The announcement on Saturday came after a gruelling wait following the August 23 to 24 general elections.
That Mnangagwa won re-election was an icing on the cake for Zanu PF supporters after the party won 136 out of 210 National Assembly seats ahead of the CCC which got 73 seats.
The supporters say the fresh mandate would give Mnangagwa the latitude to complete some of his projects as Zimbabwe moves towards an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
The CCC is disputing the results with the case likely to spill into the courts.
In the interim, work is cut out for Mnangagwa.
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He must appease the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) following his lieutenants' attack on the bloc’s election observer mission head Nevers Mumba after the release of its interim report on the elections.
Zanu PF politburo member Chris Mutsvangwa and Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi threw the toys out of the pram, accusing Mumba of having overstepped the bloc’s mandate after the mission said Zimbabwe had not ticked most of the boxes in the holding of free, fair and credible elections.
But Sadc took no prisoners calling upon “all to exercise responsibility and decorum on how they express opinions regarding the electoral process and the Sadc Electoral Observer Mission in general”.
In previous polls, Sadc was accused of cosying up to Zanu PF after its refusal to describe the elections as not free and fair.
Forty-four percent of the eligible voters did not vote for Mnangagwa. Instead, they cast their ballot for Chamisa to take the country to the Promised Land. Their choice should be respected.
However, Mnangagwa’s fresh mandate does not give him the carte blanche to “punish” voters that rejected him, especially in Harare and Bulawayo.
He must rise above that, showing that he is the President for everyone.
We state here that one does not need to be a member of Zanu PF or a relative of the chefs to open the door to opportunities.
The task ahead for Mnangagwa is tough but not insurmountable if he leads by example so that Zimbabweans beat their swords into ploughshares.
As Mnangagwa said yesterday, there are no winners or losers but “one united people of Zimbabwe”.
Peace and unity should be the glue that holds Zimbabweans together.
For Mnangagwa, the work started yesterday to bring Zimbabweans together. It includes reining in his combative “war monger” lieutenants that chose toxicity over unity and peace.