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After two days of claims and counterclaims, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa secured a comfortable victory, polling 2.46 million votes against 2.15 million for 40-year-old opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe's former ally in the ruling ZANU-PF party, faces opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in a historic vote for the southern African nation.
The election will see 75-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a long-time Mugabe ally, face 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who is vying to become Zimbabwe's youngest head of state.
Mugabe, 93, who had led Zimbabwe from independence in 1980, stepped down on Tuesday after the army seized power and the ruling ZANU-PF party turned against him.
Mugabe, who had led Zimbabwe from independence in 1980, stepped down on Tuesday after the army seized power and the ruling party turned against him. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice president sacked by Mugabe earlier this month, is set to be sworn in as president on Friday.
It was his first public speech since Mugabe fired him on November 6 over a succession tussle with the former first lady, a move that prompted the military's intervention to force Mugabe from power, leading to his resignation yesterday.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former security chief known as The Crocodile, is expected to take over as president.
"The people of Zimbabwe have spoken with one voice and it is my appeal to President Mugabe that he should take heed of this clarion call by the people of Zimbabwe to resign, so that the country can move forward and preserve his legacy," Mnangagwa said in a statement.
A resignation letter has now been drafted, CNN said, citing sources familiar with his negotiations with the generals who seized power in Harare last week.
In a televised address late last night, the 93-year-old defied expectations that he would bring the curtain down on his reign, pitching the country into a second week of political crisis.
"The (ruling ZANU-PF) party congress is due in a few weeks and I will preside over its processes," Mugabe said, pitching the country into deep uncertainty.
Mugabe - the world's oldest head of state - remains national president for the time being but now faces overwhelming opposition from the generals, much of the Zimbabwean public and from his own party
His stunning downfall in just four days is likely to send shockwaves across Africa, where a number of entrenched strongmen, from Uganda's Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila, are facing mounting pressure to quit
The marches will cap an unprecedented week in which generals seized power and put Mugabe under house arrest in a stunning turnaround for the president who has ruled since 1980.
The 'Grand Old Man of Africa' was put under house arrest, along with his family, following a military takeover that threatens to end his reign.
The army appears to want Mugabe to go quietly and allow a smooth and bloodless transition to Emmerson Mnangagwa
A magnet for controversies, Robert Mugabe has been the face of Zimbabwe for years, before the country's military seized power overnight.
Zimbabwean soldiers and armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, parliament and the courts in central Harare, a Reuters witness said on Wednesday.
The country, led by authoritarian President Robert Mugabe, adopted the US dollar and South African rand in 2009 after inflation - which peaked at 231 million per cent - rendered the local dollar worthless.
