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Zimbabwe's top court on Tuesday threw out a petition to challenge the July 31 poll outcome, ruling that incumbent president Robert Mugabe was duly re-elected.
The disposal of the court challenge by outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai paves way for Mugabe's inauguration, initially set on Thursday.
The court judgment did not come as a surprise as regional blocs which sent the bulk of foreign observers to the elections have largely endorsed the outcome.
Tsvangirai lost heavily to Mugabe who garnered 61 percent of the vote against his 34 percent. His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party also lost, with 23 percent versus 76 percent to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
In a unanimous decision, the constitutional court ruled that Mugabe was duly elected in the elections that were held in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe and in particular, the Electoral Act.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku who delivered the ruling said the elections were free, fair and credible, echoing sentiments of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community that have also endorsed the elections as free and fair.
"The result of that election is a true reflection of the free will of the people of Zimbabwe who voted. The respondent Robert Mugabe was duly elected president of Zimbabwe and is hereby declared the winner of that said election," Chidyausiku said.
Tsvangirai had challenged Mugabe's election victory in the court, citing vote rigging by Zanu-PF party.
He, however, withdrew the court challenge at the last minute after failing to get key evidence from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to substantiate his rigging claims.
Chief Justice Chidyausiku said Tsvangirai's court application challenging the validity of Mugabe's victory was unique and could not be withdrawn at law.
"The petition cannot be terminated by a withdrawal. Once such an application is lodged, it can only be finalized by a determination of the constitutional court," he said.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai's party expressed disappointment with the ruling, saying the pronouncement of the elections as "free, fair and credible" by the chief justice had rendered null and void the party's 95 other petitions challenging parliamentary results in the Electoral Court.
"We find this very, very unfortunate," said MDC-T party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora.
He said the MDC-T party would continue to struggle for justice and ensure the rule of law was retained in the country.
He claimed his party had been denied justice by the court's failure to provide them with election material that they wanted to use in prosecuting their case.
The party's a national executive would now pursue diplomatic and political routes to try and resolve the election dispute, Mwonzora said.
"We have said we will struggle against this injustice in three ways, firstly, legally which has terminated today. Secondly diplomatically and thirdly politically so we have not run out of options as the MDC-T. We are preparing to govern this country," he said.
But Mwonzora declined to elaborate on the nature of political and diplomatic measures.
