HARARE, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean government spokesperson Nick Mangwana on Thursday said that only the courts of law can order fresh elections in Zimbabwe, following claims by the opposition that last week's polls were rigged.
His statement came after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Wednesday issued an extraordinary Government Gazette declaring President Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner of the presidential election held on Aug. 23-24.
Opposition Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC), however, has called for the elections -- which also covered parliament and local authorities -- to be rerun, alleging that there were irregularities in the way they were conducted.
"Good morning beloveds. Please allow me to say: only the court can order fresh elections and there must be serious evidence of electoral fraud. There is none here. A loser can't just demand another bite of the cherry," Mangwana said on social media platform X, formerly called Twitter.
He added that only the ZEC was mandated to run elections in the country as per the constitution. "We haven't suspended our constitution and we are not going to," he declared.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi had also earlier told the government-controlled Herald newspaper that Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) would not surrender their victory as the country's constitution did not provide for election reruns at the behest of a losing candidate or an international organization.
"Section 93 of the constitution is clear about what an aggrieved person must do. They must file a petition within seven days of declaration of a winner by ZEC. Our constitution is also clear that we hold an election once every five years. That has been done. There is no provision for another election as demanded by CCC," Ziyambi said.
He also shot down CCC's call for the United Nations, the African Union, or the Southern African Development Community to conduct elections in Zimbabwe, saying that the country's laws did not have such provisions.
In the presidential election, Mnangagwa polled 52.6 percent of the vote against Chamisa's 44 percent, according to the ZEC. ■