80-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa has secured a second five-year term as Zimbabwe’s president, as he was declared the winner of the election – with 53% – by the African country’s Electoral Commission (ZEC).

Emmerson Mnangagwa, known by the nickname “Crocodile”, comes from the powerful ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) which has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 when the former British colony became an independent state. Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s vice president (2014-2017) before he was ousted in November 2017 and fled the country (first to Mozambique and then to South Africa). A few days later, Zimbabwe’s president of four decades was overthrown in a coup and Mnangagwa returned home to take power. In the elections held in 2018, he narrowly defeated his opponent, Nelson Chamisa, who complained of fraud, but the constitutional court upheld the election result.

The 45-year-old Chamisa was again the opposition’s candidate in this year’s presidential elections. A spokesman for the CCC (Citizens Coalition for Change) party rejected “any result announced hastily without a verification process”.

The head of the EU observer mission said on Friday that the elections were held in a “climate of fear”. Southern African Development Community (SADC) observers pointed to biased coverage of the election campaign by state media, as well as a ban on rallies.