Mugabe denies rigging in speech after re-elected Zimbabwe president

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Monday denied rigging in last month's elections, where he and his party scored a landslide victory over the opposition. Mugabe made the comments at his first public speech after being re-elected in the July 31 elections, in which he won 61 percent of the vote while his Zanu-PF party gained more than 70 percent of the 210 elected seats in the parliament. Addressing supporters in Harare to celebrate the Heroes' Day, Mugabe thanked Zimbabweans for securing and defending the country's heritage by voting overwhelmingly for his party. The Heroes' Day celebration is extremely relevant to the Zanu- PF as it is the party that participated in the struggle against the white-rule Rhodesia and won the independence of present day Zimbabwe. The veteran president, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence, was originally expected to be sworn in on Monday, but postponed the inauguration as his main rival Prime Minister approached the country's top court to challenge the poll outcome. According to the law, the court will rule on the case in 14 days and only after that can the new president be sworn in. Many analysts predict Tsvangirai's efforts to challenge the results as fruitless as the African Union, the Southern African Development Union, and many African states have largely endorsed the election and urged all parties to accept the results.