Re-elected Mugabe to be sworn in Thursday

Robert Mugabe who has won re-election as the country's next president will be sworn in Thursday, days after his rival and country's prime minister withdrew a legal petition challenging his victory in the Zimbabwean presidential poll.

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, Xinhua reported.

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 that he would not get 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 cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.