Namibia’s President Hage Geingob has congratulated Zimbabwe’s President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF following their announced victory in the recently-held “peaceful” harmonised elections.
Millions of Zimbabweans flocked to polling stations on Wednesday and Thursday last week to elect the southern African nation’s president and members of the legislature.
On Saturday night, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Priscilla Makanyara Chigumba announced that Mnangagwa had retained the presidency by a 52.6 percent margin.
According to figures released by ZEC, Mnangagwa scored 2,350,111 votes, in the tightly-contested elections, beating Nelson Chamisa who leads the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party - who garnered 1,967,343 which translates to 44 percent of the vote.
Chamisa has vehemently slammed the poll results announced by ZEC, insisting that he has won.
A total 11 candidates were vying for the State House in Zimbabwe.
On Sunday, the Namibian leader, Geingob was one of the first regional leaders to congratulate Mnangagwa, describing the elections as “peaceful”.
“On behalf of the people and government of the Republic of Namibia, President Hage G. Geingob extended (on Sunday) 27 August 2023 warm congratulations to the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency Comrade Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa,” Geingob's spokesperson, Dr Alfredo Hengari said in a statement.
“President Geingob also extended through President Mnangagwa fraternal felicitations to Zanu-PF, the sister party of SWAPO (the South West Africa People's Organisation), on the victory in the peaceful harmonised elections held on August 23,” he said.
“President Geingob further said that the the re-election of His Excellency Comrade Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa was indeed a testimony of the trust and confidence in which the people of Zimbabwe continue to repose in President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF,” said Hengari.
“President Geingob wished President Mnangagwa good strength and wisdom in carrying out his renewed mandate and looked forward to working closely with President Mnangagwa to further deepen and strengthen our bilateral cooperation as well as advancing the shared regional development agenda.”
On Wednesday last week, Mnangagwa through a special proclamation extended voting by another day after long delays marred the first day of voting at different polling stations.
Long queues were seen at several polling stations across Zimbabwe on Wednesday – the first day of the elections - as millions of Zimbabweans lined up to participate in the tightly contested general elections.
The number of total votes cast in the harmonised elections was 4,561,222 and the ZEC announced that there were more than 90,000 spoiled votes.
IOL