Zimbabwe President elect Emmerson Mnangagwa has called on masses to forget the election period and focus on pushing the country forward.

Mnangagwa’s speech came on after his violent election was challenged in court over alleged fraud that even delayed his nauguration.

The election  involved the army opening fire on protesters, allegations of vote-rigging and a crackdown on opposition activists.

Emmerson Mnangagwa worked for 40 years with former President Robert Mugabe who was forced to resign.

“It’s now time to put the election period behind us and embrace the future,” the president-elect said at a speech on the annual day honouring Zimbabwe’s independence heroes.

“The task facing us today is a great one,” he added.

“We should never be deterred by temporary setbacks and regrettable events we have encountered.”

Mnangagwa narrowly won the July 30 vote with 50.8% to Chamisa’s 44.3% after taking power last year when the military ousted Mugabe after 37 years in office.

Meanwhile the leading opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa said the “unsatisfactory, and in fact scandalous way” the election was carried out was a “betrayal of the heroes and heroines who made an independent Zimbabwe possible in 1980”.

He added that in their push for liberation they had fought for “one person, one vote”.

Mnangagwa, a former close ally of Mugabe, repeated his accusation that the opposition MDC party was responsible for violence at an anti-fraud protest when soldiers opened fire killing six people.

The MDC on Friday lodged a Constitutional Court appeal against the election result, forcing Mnangagwa’s inauguration, which had been due on Sunday, to be postponed.

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