HARARE, June 29: Robert Mugabe was sworn in on Sunday for a sixth term of office as Zimbabwe president after being declared winner of a one-man election widely denounced throughout the world as an illegitimate farce.

“I will well and truly serve this country in the office of president, so help me God,” 84-year-old Mugabe said at a ceremony at his State House residence, presided over by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.

The rapidly-convened ceremony was staged barely an hour after the electoral commission declared he won a total of 2,150,269 votes against 233,000 for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who boycotted the election but whose name still appeared on ballot papers.

Turnout was announced at 42.37 per cent, and 131,481 ballot papers were rejected.

The announcement was derided as a “joke” by Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change which pulled out of the run-off last weekend after a wave of deadly attacks against its supporters.

“This is an unbelievable joke and act of desperation on the part of the regime,” the MDC’s chief spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

“It qualifies for the Guinness Book of Records as joke of the year.” No African heads of state were present for the inauguration ceremony, in stark contrast to his previous election victories.

Mugabe is Africa’s oldest head of state and has ruled the former British colony uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1980.

He was expected to fly out of Harare soon after the ceremony, headed for an African Union summit in Egypt where his country’s crisis was to feature high on the agenda.

Mugabe had been assured of a landslide victory after Tsvangirai pulled out of Friday’s presidential run-off vote, citing rising violence against his supporters that he said had left nearly 90 dead and thousands injured.

Tsvangirai won the first round of the election on March 29 with 47.9 per cent of the vote against 43.2 per cent for Mugabe -- just short of an outright majority.Defying international and regional calls for him to postpone the election, Mugabe pushed ahead with the vote anyway, warning against outside interference in his country’s affairs and shrugging off Tsvangirai’s claims of violence.

In final pre-poll rallies, Mugabe said thousands had been killed in other African countries ahead of elections but polls were held regardless. He also indicated he was open to talks with the opposition — but only after Friday’s vote.

Tsvangirai remained on the ballot despite announcing he was pulling out a week ago, with electoral commission officials saying it was too late to withdraw.

But the opposition leader did not urge supporters to cast ballots for him and even told followers to vote for Mugabe if they felt it was necessary to protect themselves.

There were widespread claims of voter intimidation, including residents being forced to polling stations and ruling party militants threatening to check people’s fingers to see whether they had cast ballots.

Voters are required to dip a finger into indelible ink at polling booths.

Many Western governments denounced the vote as a sham, and a growing number of African leaders have joined in criticising Mugabe for insisting on holding a one-candidate election.

Although Western observers were barred from covering the election, a number of African monitors were allowed in.

The head of the Pan-African parliament mission told a news conference on Sunday that the vote was neither free nor fair and fresh polls should be held.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, among the veteran leader’s most vocal critics on the continent, called on the African Union to send troops into Zimbabwe and labelled Mugabe “a shame to Africa”.—AFP

South African President Thabo Mbeki, the regionally appointed mediator for Zimbabwe, has worked to seek a negotiated solution in the country but has faced harsh criticism over what many see as his failure to confront Mugabe.

Tsvangirai has previously called for Mbeki to be stripped of his role as mediator and has pleaded for a widened mediation effort.

The opposition leader has sent mixed signals over his willingness to negotiate with Mugabe, at times saying he could not hold talks with an illegitimate leader.

In weekend newspaper interviews, however, he suggested the possibility of Mugabe remaining as a ceremonial head of state if an agreement on rewriting the constitution could be reached.

—AFP