A subdued Zimbabwe set for Mnangagwa's inauguration, again

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe on Sunday prepared to inaugurate a president for the second time in nine months as a country recently jubilant over the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe is now largely subdued by renewed harassment of the opposition and a bitterly disputed election.

The military-backed President Emmerson Mnangagwa, now facing another swearing-in, 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 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 victory.

"It is time to move forward together," said Mnangagwa, who has promised democratic and economic reforms.

Chamisa on Saturday said he respectfully rejects the court ruling and called the inauguration "false."

"They know they can't invite me to a wedding where I was the one supposed to be receiving the gifts," he said. His spokesman Nkululeko Sibanda on Sunday said "we haven't received any formal invitation" to the inauguration.

The 40-year-old Chamisa has called for dialogue with Mnangagwa but suggested that talks on power-sharing first must acknowledge the opposition leader's alleged victory. "You cannot steal my goats and then ask me to come and share them with you. Give me the goats first, then we can talk about sharing," he said.

Ruling party spokesman Paul Mangwana criticized Chamisa for saying he will snub the inauguration.

"He should grace the event. It is important for nation-building at this critical time. The problem is the (Movement for Democratic Change party) did not give us a good opposition leader, they gave us a schoolboy, so he is playing schoolboy politics," Mangwana told The Associated Press.

Upbeat supporters of the president and ruling ZANU-PF party streamed into the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium in the capital, Harare, many wearing pro-Mnangagwa regalia.

Some said they woke up before dawn to catch buses and trucks ferrying them from villages hundreds of kilometers from the capital.

State-run media said the heads of state of South Africa, Congo and Zambia also were attending. Botswana's former leader and a sharp critic of Mugabe, Ian Khama, attended Mnangagwa's first inauguration in November but will miss this time "due to prior commitments," Botswana's government said.

The mood was less enthusiastic in downtown Harare, an opposition stronghold. "He is not my president, why should I go?" asked one resident, Emmanuel Mazunda.

Zimbabwe's economy is in a tailspin. Analysts say Mnangagwa's immediate tasks should include solving severe cash shortages and high unemployment that has forced thousands of people into the streets as vendors. Millions of others have fled the country over the years.

The government badly needed a credible election to end its status as a global pariah, have international sanctions lifted and open the door to investment.

Final reports are pending from dozens of Western election observers invited for the first time in nearly two decades. Observers noted few issues on election day but expressed concern about the "excessive use of force" two days later, when six people were killed as the military swept into the capital to disperse protests.

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