Zimbabwe's re-elected Mugabe to be sworn in Thursday

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe who has won reelection as the country's next president will be sworn in Thursday, just days after his rival withdrew a legal bid to challenge his landslide victory of the poll, state media reported late Sunday.

Mugabe, 89 and the oldest leader in Africa, won the July 31 poll with 61 percent of the vote, beating his arch-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who had only 34 percent of the vote. Tsvangirai originally filed a petition to the country's top court asking it to nullify the vote, citing widespread rigging and voter intimidation allegations, but dropped the bid last Friday over concerns of unlikely getting a fair trial.

It will be Mugabe's sixth term as president and seventh term as head of the government since Zimbabwe gained its independence from Britain in 1980. According to the country's new constitution, a presidential term is five years and one person can not serve more than two consecutive terms.

Mugabe told state broadcaster ZBC after returning from a two- day meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that he wouldset up a new cabinet after taking the oath Thursday.

The 15-member SADC, which brokered the coalition government after the disputed 2008 Zimbabwean polls, has largely endorsed the July 31 elections as free, credible, and peaceful. Most countries in Africa, East Asia, Latin America have also congratulated Mugabe on the re-election, while Western countries led by the United States and Britain have voiced doubts on credibility of the poll.

Mugabe will also take over the rotating SADC chair in 2014 if he stays in office then. The veteran leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, has said that he will serve a full five-year term despite concerns over his health.