Emmerson Mnangagwa sworn in as president of Zimbabwe Sunday Aug 26,2018

 

Emmerson Mnangagwa was officially sworn in as president of Zimbabwe on Sunday   Aug 26,2018 after winning a bitterly contested election that marked the country's first vote since Robert Mugabe was ousted from power. 

The military-backed PresidentEmmerson Mnangagwa who again took the oath of office, faces the mammoth task of rebuilding a worsening economy and  uniting a nation deeply divided by a vote that many hoped would deliver change.

The 75-year-old Mnangagwa, who took power from his mentor Robert Mugabe with the military's help in November , said "my door is open and my arms are outstretched" to main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa after the Constitutional Court on Friday rejected opposition claims of vote-rigging and upheld the president's narrow July 30,2018 victory.

"It is time to move forward together," said Mnangagwa, who has promised democratic and economic reforms after Mugabe's repressive 37-year rule.

Upbeat supporters of the president and ruling ZANU-PF party filled the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium in the capital, Harare. Some said they woke before dawn to catch buses and trucks in villages hundreds of kilometers away.

The heads of state of South Africa, Congo, Rwanda and Zambia and elsewhere attended.