President Emmerson Mnangagwa has won Zimbabwe's presidential election, according to the country's electoral commission.

With all 10 provinces declared, Mr Mnangagwa won 50.8 percent of votes to 44.3 percent for opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.

Police removed opposition officials from the electoral commission stage when they rejected the results.

SKULDUGGERY

The chairman of Mr Chamisa's MDC Alliance said the count could not be verified.

By winning more than 50 percent of the vote, Mr Mnangagwa avoided a second run-off election against Mr Chamisa.

Mr Chamisa has insisted he has won the presidential poll, telling reporters on Thursday the ruling Zanu-PF party was "trying to bastardise the result", something that "we will not allow".

But the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said there was "absolutely no skulduggery".

REPRESSIVE

Opposition supporters protested in Harare over alleged vote-rigging, which led to six deaths on Wednesday.

The elections were the first since long-time ruler Robert Mugabe, 94, was ousted in November last year.

The polls were intended to set Zimbabwe on a new path following Mr Mugabe's repressive rule.

DEFUSE CRISIS

Harare was a ghost town on Thursday following Wednesday's violence, as troops patrolled the city centre ordering people to "behave".

Mr Mnangagwa said the government was in talks with Mr Chamisa to defuse the crisis and proposed an independent investigation to bring those who were behind the violence to justice.

"This land is home to all of us, and we will sink or swim together," Mr Mnangagwa said in a series of tweets.

Has his plea been heeded?

NO VIOLENCE

No violence was reported on Thursday. A truckload of armed policemen and soldiers were driving around the city shouting, "Behave yourself, people of Zimbabwe."

Riot police raided the headquarters of the MDC Alliance, and detained about 10 people.

A BBC reporter in Harare says the city centre is like a ghost town.