Harare — Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling Zanu-PF party took a significant lead in Zimbabwe’s presidential election race on Thursday, ahead of his main opponent Nelson Chamisa of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, according to official results. With nine out of 10 provinces declared, Mnangagwa had 2,147,505 votes to Chamisa’s 1,929,704, according to tallies from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which annonced the results at 10pm on Thursday. The result from the last province of Mashonaland West, a Zanu-PF stronghold, was due to be released later. Zimbabwe has been bracing itself for the release of results in the landmark presidential elections — the first since the ousting of former president Robert Mugabe — which have already sparked a deadly crackdown on protesters. Six people were killed on Wednesday when troops fired live rounds against MDC demonstrators alleging the vote had been rigged. Soldiers and police cleared central Harare ahead of the res...
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