Zimbabwe's top court has ruled that veteran Robert Mugabe won a fiercely contested presidential election fair and square.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said the July 31 elections were "free, fair and credible".
"Robert Gabriel Mugabe was duly elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe and is hereby declared the winner of the said election," Chidyausiku said on Tuesday.
The declaration - despite widespread allegations of vote rigging - clears the way for 89-year-old Mugabe to hold his high-profile inauguration on Thursday and embark on another five-year term.
"The constitutional court has finally issued its decision. In doing so it has brought the whole electoral process to an end," Mugabe's lawyer Terrence Hussein told journalists.
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"It has brought stability. It has brought certainty. We can now all move on. I think we now know who our president is for the next five years."
Mugabe has ruled the country for 33 years since independence from Britain.
His swearing-in had been delayed after Morgan Tsvangirai challenged the election results in a petition to the constitutional court.
Among other complaints, Tsvangirai queried the unusually high number of voters who were turned away from urban areas, which are considered strongholds of his party.
The opposition leader later retracted the case, claiming he would not get a fair shake from the court.
Mugabe's inauguration promises to be more high profile than in previous years, a show of power, perhaps designed to confer legitimacy amid persistent allegations of electoral fraud.
The ceremony's organisers said around 40 heads of state have been invited to the event, to be held in a 60,000-seater sports stadium on the outskirts of the capital.
Zimbabwe's electoral commission declared Mugabe the winner with 61 per cent of the ballot, against his main rival Tsvangirai's 34 per cent.
The elections were to end a shaky power-sharing government formed by Mugabe and Tsvangirai four years ago to avoid a tip into conflict following a bloody presidential run-off election.
An electoral court judge on Tuesday called for the prosecution of Tsvangirai's lawyers for claiming the judiciary was not independent of the executive or of Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
Mugabe was declared winner in a presidential run-off election in 2008 after Tsvangirai pulled out of the race citing violence which left 200 of his supporters dead and thousands displaced.
