Mugabe says Zimbabwe elections free and fair

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has insisted that the presidential elections were free and fair, in his first public speech since his big win in the general elections last week.

He said the re-election of his Zanu-PF party confirmed that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again, in his address to thousands of supporters celebrating the Heroes’ Day int the capital, Harare.

“Those who were hurt by defeat can go hang if they so wish,” Mugabe said in Tuesday’s speech.

“Never will we go back on our victory.”

Mugabe, 89, won 61 per cent of the votes in the July 31 polls as compared to his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai, who managed 34 percent.

Tsvangirai, leader of the defeated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) boycotted Tuesday’s event, but the party said individual members were free to attend the celebrations.

Tsvangirai has challenged the elections results which he claims were “fraudulent and stolen” and demanded a re-run.

Lawyers for Tsvangirai filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court on Friday over the parliamentary and presidential election results.

The lawyers said they discovered that 870,000 names were duplicated on the voters’ lists.