HARARE, March 13: Zimbabwe’s longtime President Robert Mugabe swept back to six more years in office on Wednesday, but his opponent swiftly rejected the outcome of a vote which local and Western observers said was severely flawed.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the people had been “cheated” and immediately announced a nationwide popular consultation to decide a response.

African nations generally backed the announced re-election of Mugabe, 78, still considered the architect of his nation’s liberation from minority white rule.

But among Western nations, Mugabe has become a pariah, accused of using state-backed violence to intimidate his opponents, and already under personal sanctions from the European Union and the United States.

Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in 1980, won 56.2 percent of the vote, against 41.9 percent for Tsvangirai, according to official results.

Tsvangirai, 50, immediately rejected the result, telling a press conference in Harare that the election had been “massively rigged” and calling a national consultation of the Zimbabwean people.

He cited “state-sponsored terrorism” targeting his supporters, the “insidious disenfranchisement” of voters in the MDC’s urban strongholds and intimidation in rural areas that offered “unfettered opportunities” to rig the outcome.

The former colonial power Britain said after the results were announced that Mugabe had held on to power through a “systematic campaign of violence and intimidation.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the campaign had been instigated “to achieve one goal, power at all costs. It is no surprise that this outcome has now been achieved.”

Tsvangirai told the press conference: “The people of Zimbabwe know better, that this election ... does not reflect the true will of the people of Zimbabwe.

“From now on there is a massive consultation taking place and they (the people) will have to decide what to do. They are the ones who have been cheated,” he said.

South African observers gave a qualified endorsement of the polls. The head observer Sam Motsuenyane said they could be considered “legitimate,” but added: “We cannot openly describe it as free and fair.”—AFP