Mugabe wins Zimbabwe presidential election

HARARE - Zimbabwe's incumbent president Robert Mugabe, 89, won the presidential election in Zimbabwe with 2.11 million votes or 61.09 percent of about 3.48 million qualified voters, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Rita Makarau announced.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's most formidable opponent, won 1.172 million votes or 33.69 percent of the votes, according to Makarau. Zimbabwe law provides that a candidate with more than 50 percent plus one vote be declared winner of the presidential election.

The 89-year-old veteran president secured another five-year term in office, extending his 33-year rule since the country's independence in 1980.

As to parliament election, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party scored two thirds of the seats, enough to amend the constitution without consulting the opposition.

Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a senior member of Mugabe' s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), said that the vote is free, fair, peaceful, and credible and reflects the will of most Zimbabweans.

Regarded as Mugabe's most serious challenger in politics since 1997, Tsvangirai refused to accept the results, declaring on Saturday afternoon that he and his MDC-T party will exhaust all legal remedies to challenge the results.

Tsvangirai, the prime minister of the Zimbabwe coalition government, said at a press briefing at his Harare home that his party will go to court and present evidence on why they are rejecting the elections which he said were fraudulent.

He said that his party will not join government institutions under Mugabe and Zanu-PF rule.

On participation in parliament, he said that they will decide at the right time.

Zimbabweans went to polls on Wednesday to elect a president, 210 law-makers, and nearly 2,000 local councilors.

Mugabe said earlier that he has complied with the electoral law.

"I have the law in my country. It is the law that manipulates us all. I don't control the electoral process. I comply with and obey the electoral law," Mugabe told a press conference on the eve of the elections.