‘I was elected cleanly’, President Mnangagwa tells SADC leaders

Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly told the Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders that he was “elected cleanly” by the people of Zimbabwe in the recently ended elections.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said this during his address to Heads of State and Government at the 38th SADC summit meeting in Windhoek, Namibia.

“All political parties were free to campaign in all parts of the country however they saw fit.

“This saw an unprecedented number of people freely exercising their democratic right to elect leaders of their choice in the spirit of transparency and openness.

“Our elections were held in the full glare of a broader spectrum of international observers and global media,” Mnangagwa was quoted as saying.

Mnangagwa said this as the Constitutional Court was considering an appeal by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party alleging that the election was rigged in favour of him.

The Zimbabwe opposition party MDC has accused the ruling Zanu-PF and the election commission of ballot fraud in the July 30 vote, Zimbabwe’s first poll since the ousting of Robert Mugabe in November

President Mnangagwa narrowly won the presidential race with 50.8% of the vote – just enough to avoid a run-off against the MDC’s Nelson Chamisa, who scored 44.3%.