Post date: Aug 21, 2013 4:34:33 PM
President Robert Mugabe will be inaugurated on Thursday (August 22) as head of state after winning presidential elections held on the 31st of July.
HARARE, ZIMBABWE ( JULY 05, 2013) ( REUTERS) - President Robert Mugabe will be inaugurated on Thursday (August 22) as head of state after winning presidential elections held on the 31st of July. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is extending his 33-year rule of the country after winning the election.
The 15-nation Southern African Development Community, which helped broker a power-sharing deal after disputed elections in Zimbabwe in 2008, backed Mugabe's re-election on Sunday.Southern African leaders endorsed the re-election of veteran President Robert Mugabe, brushing aside a campaign from Zimbabwe's opposition MDC who said the vote July was rigged and its results should be overturned.
At its meeting in Malawi's capital Lilongwe, the group also named Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader, as its deputy chairman and said it would hold a summit next year inZimbabwe's capital.
Unlike the SADC and the African Union observer missions, which broadly endorsed the vote, the preliminary assessment by the leading domestic observers' body called the election "seriously compromised".
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said registration flaws may have disenfranchised up to a million people out of 6.4 million registered voters.
The MDC on Friday withdrew a court challenge against the re-election, saying it would not get a fair hearing. It sent delegates to Lilongwe to raise its objections.
Lawyers said the Constitutional Court was expected on Monday to formally accept the MDC's withdrawal application, paving the way for Mugabe to be sworn in for a new five-year term.
Under the constitution, a president has to be sworn in within 48 hours of theconstitutional court decision.
Political analysts said outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been careful not to speak about street protests, fearing a crackdown on his MDC leadership by Mugabe's security forces.
Former colonial power Britain had urged SADC to look carefully at accusations of fraud in last month's poll and said it was disappointed opposition parties had withdrawn its legal challenge.
The United States believes Zimbabwe's recent election was flawed and it doesn't plan to loosen sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government until there are signs of change in the country.