Western Countries have expressed concern over Robert Mugabe's re-election as Zimbabwe's President for a Seventh term of office amid claims of electoral fraud and abuse of constitutional provisions.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the results did not "represent a credible expression of the people".
| Mugabe casting his vote in an election that has seen him take office for the Seventh term. |
Mr Mugabe, 89, won 61% of the July 31st vote, against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's 34% and also took two thirds of the seats in Parliament.
Mr Tsvangirai however rejected the vote for parliament and president as fraudulent and vowed to take legal action.
He said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would no longer work with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and boycott government institutions.
The two parties have been in a coalition since 2009, after the last election sparked widespread violence that led to deaths of dozens of Zimbabweans.
Why they are Concerned.
The concern that Major Western groups were not invited to send observer missions to monitor Wednesday's election.
The US has described the vote as "deeply flawed".
"In light of substantial electoral irregularities reported by domestic and regional observers, the United States does not believe that the results represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people," Mr Kerry said.
Former colonial power the UK also expressed "grave concerns" over reports of large numbers of voters being turned away from polling stations.
British Foreign Minister William Hague urged a thorough investigation of all allegations of violations.
Meanwhile the European Union which maintains sanctions on Mr Mugabe and his senior aides, said it was worried about "alleged irregularities and reports of incomplete participation" in the election.
Monitoring groups disagreed over the conduct of the election.
On Saturday, one of the nine members of the election commission resigned over the way the election was conducted.
Commissioner Mkhululi Nyathi said in his resignation letter: "While throughout the whole process I retained some measure of hope that the integrity of the whole process could be salvaged along the way, this was not to be."
However, the African Union, which had 70 observers, said its initial report suggested the election was "free and credible".
The AU's mission chief Olusegun Obasanjo said there had been "incidents that could have been avoided" and asked Zimbabwe's election authorities to investigate claims that voters had been turned away from polling stations.
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