Zimbabwe opposition MDC Alliance said the election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa was based on a fake result and that it would challenge it in court.
According to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Mnangagwa won 50.8 percent of the vote, ahead of Nelson Chamisa of the opposition MDC party on 44.3 percent.
Mnangagwa, Emmerson Dambudzo, of ZANU-PF party is therefore duly declared elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe, announced ZEC chair Priscilla Chigumba.
Mnangagwa won by the smallest of margins, after needing more than 50 percent of the vote to secure victory without a second-round run-off.
He quickly took to Twitter to say he was humbled to have won the election, hailing it as a new beginning for the country.
Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams. This is a new beginning, he said.
Moments before the official announcement, MDC spokesman Morgan Komichi denounced the vote count as fake as he took to the stage at the ZEC results centre before being removed by police.
After Mnangagwa was declared the winner, he told AFP that his party rejected the outcome. We will take this to the courts, he said.
Police and soldiers were on the streets of Harare overnight, but there were no reported protests and few public celebrations when the results were announced after midnight.
Turnout was high at over 80 percent in most of the countrys 10 provinces.
What they have been trying to do of late is to play around, Chamisa, who claimed he won the popular vote, told reporters hours before the final results.
That is rigging, that is manipulation, trying to bastardise the result, and that we will not allow.
He took to Twitter on Friday morning to explain what he called the fraud and manipulation of the will of the people of Zimbabwe.
The ZEC scandal of releasing unverified fake results is regrettable. ZEC denied our election agent access to results be4 announcement. ZEC must release proper