HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The Latest on Zimbabwe’s presidential election (all times local):
11:45 a.m.
Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken the oath as Zimbabwe’s president after a bitterly disputed election. Cheers ring out in a national stadium at his inauguration as the country moves on from the decades-long rule of Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa first took office in November after Mugabe resigned under military pressure, and narrowly won a July 30 election that the opposition alleged was rigged. The Constitutional Court on Friday rejected those claims.
The 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe confidant, now faces the mammoth task of rebuilding a worsening economy and uniting a nation deeply divided by a vote that many hoped would deliver change.
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9:30 a.m.
Zimbabweans have begun arriving at a national stadium for the inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa after a bitterly disputed election.
This is the second swearing-in of Mnangagwa in just nine months as a country once jubilant over the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe is now more subdued after the reemergence of harassment of the opposition.
Banners on state-run television say “You are all invited” to the inauguration, but many Zimbabweans wonder what’s next after the Constitutional Court rejected opposition claims of vote-rigging. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has vowed peaceful protests.
A deadly military crackdown after the peaceful vote hurt Mnangagwa’s aspirations for a credible election that would reverse Zimbabwe’s status as a global pariah and bring badly needed investment in an economy that collapsed under Mugabe’s 37-year rule.
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