Mugabe wins key by-election

The Insiza seat had been won by the MDC in June 2000

Zimbabwe's ruling party has won a key by-election in the south-west of the country.

President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF took the seat of Insiza from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Meanwhile the MDC says its offices in Bulawayo were extensively damaged in an attack.

A spokesman for the party said a crowd of about 100 youths stoned the building on Monday morning, shattering windows.

The spokesman described the attack as unprovoked and said the assailants wore Zanu-PF youth militia uniforms.

'Bribed'

The Insiza seat, near Bulawayo, was won by more than 7,000 votes, with Zanu-PF getting more than 12,000 to the MDC's 5,000.

The by-election reversed an MDC victory in parliamentary elections in June 2000.

Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and it is also a stronghold of the MDC.

The MDC earlier alleged that voters had been intimidated and bribed with food.

An MDC spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi, dismissed the election as a "misnomer".

"These are not elections, they are a charade," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

He said vehicles were also damaged in the attack on the movement's premises in Bulawayo.

He said senior opposition officials were in the offices at the time, but no-one had been injured.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from the Zimbabwe police.