Close win for Mugabe's party

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pushed Zanu-PF close

President Robert Mugabe's governing party has gained a narrow victory in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections, while suffering serious losses for the first time in its two decades in power.

Officials announced that Zanu-PF had won 62 of the 120 directly-elected seats with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) winning 57 seats.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to win in his rural constituency, but with more than one-third of the seats in the new parliament, the MDC will be able to block any constitutional changes.

Three ruling party ministers also lost their seats, but could still remain MPs as President Mugabe can appoint 20 members of the 150-member parliament. A further 10 MPs are elected by traditional chiefs.

As expected the MDC won by a huge margin in the towns and cities including Harare and Bulawayo. The ruling party did similarly well in the countryside.

One seat went to the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole's small Zanu-Ndonga party.

Mr Tsvangirai said that his party would mount a legal challenge to the results from constituencies where there had been serious manipulation.

In many of these constituencies, they have only won through intimidation

MDC legal adviser David Coltart

And he insisted that the MDC as a young party had done extraordinary well..

"This is the end of President Mugabe," he said. "Zimbabwe will never be the same again."

There has been no word from President Mugabe.

High turnout

In the cities, support for Mr Mugabe's party almost vanished.

It failed to win a single consitutuency in the capital. In other urban areas, senior ministers, such as those for justice and home affairs, lost their seats.

No seat for Morgan Tsvangirai

But as expected, Zanu-PF did well in outlying areas, with war veterans leader Chenjerai Hunzvi, who spearheaded the often violent invasion of hundreds of white-owned commercial farms, winning his rural constituency with a large majority.

MDC election director Paul Nyathi told the BBC: "We are going to make a very big difference in the parliament.

We will make sure it is not business as usual for Zanu-PF and that the will of the people for change is paid attention to

MDC election director Paul Nyathi

"We will make sure it is not business as usual for Zanu-PF and that the will of the people for change is paid attention to, as opposed to what has been happening in the past 20 years."

The results were delayed by six hours because of an unexpectedly high turnout, the Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede said.

Irregularities

About 65% of registered voters are estimated to have turned out in the polls - the highest level of voting since the first post-independence elections of 1980.

Police have been deployed against possible unrest

Our correspondent in Harare says concerns that the vote would be subject to wholesale rigging by the government had been eased by the strong showing for the opposition.

This in turn, he says, is likely to reduce fears of violence in the immediate future.

Earlier the police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, who has deployed extra officers around the country, appealed to all Zimbabweans to remain calm and peaceful.

International and local observers have generally agreed that the polling itself went smoothly, but European Union observers have highlighted serious irregularities in the electoral process.

The head of the European observer mission, Pierre Schori, said it would be incorrect to describe the whole election process as free and fair because of the pre-election violence.