From the BBC-


President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has won two-thirds of the vote in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections.
The result enables the president to change the constitution to install a successor without immediately calling elections as presently required.

So far the party has taken 71 of 120 contested seats, and Mr Mugabe can appoint another 30 deputies to the 150-seat parliament.

The opposition, which has 39 seats, has spoken of "massive fraud" in the poll.

In the last parliamentary election in 2000, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 58 seats.

Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF won 61 of the eligible seats but its parliamentary strength was boosted with the extra 30 presidential appointments, but this was short of a two-thirds majority.

In these latest polls, the recently sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo won a surprise seat as an independent.

Mr Moyo, the architect of Zimbabwe's tough media laws who fell out with the president over the appointment of the country's first woman vice-president, took the Tsholotsho constituency from the opposition MDC.

The BBC's Themba Nkosi says Zanu-PF supporters have taken to the streets in celebration in northern parts of the country, but the atmosphere is more muted in the second city of Bulawayo where the MDC draws its support.

Security is tight, with police patrolling the streets warning the winners not to provoke those who lost, he says.

PARTIAL RESULTS

MDC: 39 seats
Zanu-PF: 71 seats
Yet to be declared: 9 seats
Elected seats: 120 seats
Seats appointed by the president: 30
Surprise winner
Independent Jonathan Moyo, ex-information minister
Surprise loser
Zanu-PF Emmerson Mnangagwa, parliament speaker

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that he was "over the moon" about his party's victory.

All Zanu-PF's hard work had paid off and the result was a vindication of the party's good policies, he said.

He rejected claims by the UK, the US and Germany that Thursday's election was "flawed".

"These were the most free and fair elections in the world," he said.

Mr Tsvangirai accused the ruling party of stealing the election.

"We are deeply disturbed by the fraudulent activities we have unearthed," he said.

"We believe the people of Zimbabwe must defend their votes, their right to a free and a fair election - this is what has been denied," he said.

President Mugabe, who has been in power for 25 years, dismissed opposition complaints as nonsense.

'Ghost voters'

Average turnout was below 50%, chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramai said while local election observers describing the process as smooth.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which had some 6,000 observers in the 8,000 polling stations, says that some 10% of would-be voters were turned away, either because their names were not on the electoral roll, they did not have the right identity papers, or they were in the wrong constituency.

One man told the BBC News website that his name had been taken off the register since the last election and yet the name of his aunt was still there, although she had died six years ago.

Human rights groups say that hundreds of thousands of "ghost voters" appear on the electoral roll of 5.8 million people. They fear these entries could be used to record fraudulent votes.

Our correspondent says MDC officials were visibly shocked when the Harare South seat went to Zanu-PF, leaving them to question the voters' register and the re-drawing of constituency boundaries.

Other key results:

Parliament speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, once tipped to succeed Mr Mugabe, lost in the central Kwekwe constituency.

MDC candidate Heather Bennett, wife of jailed MP Roy Bennett, lost his Chimanimani seat.

Gentlemen

Zimbabwe needs a coupe, overthrow dictator Robb and his thugs

It would be well used ammo

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Why is he so shiny?

Reminds me of of Saddam.

Once apparently he asked one of his men to do somethign illegal, and the man told Saddam about it.

His answer was "Don't tell me what is legal and what is not. Anything I put my signature to becomes the legal!"

Saeed,

quote:

Reminds me of of Saddam.

I only wish he reminded Tony Blair or George Bush more of Saddam, and that they had the political guts to do something about him...Actually scrub Bush on this one; its one of our former colonies/member of the Commonwealth, and the UK should and could get the country sorted out and a democracy in place...

Regards,

Pete

Pete- It's all about oil, or in this case the lack of it.

I think Pete's right. It was our colony and the Brits should view it as their problem......After all the French don't hesitate to send their troops into their ex colonies when things go tits up and the Brits should do the same......unfortunately none of the UK politicians have enough balls to make that decision.

Wouldn't that picture of him look so much nicer with a set of crosshairs pasted onto it.

Or Idiot Amin. Regardless of the so-called free elections there, until the folks have had enough, Monkeyman's people will always be in power. Sad, the outcome was probably already decided before the fact.

Kinda says something for illuminated reticles, huh?

I think we can all agree that it (Africa) was a much better place when most of the countries were colored in "red" as in the "sun never sets." jorge

There is one undeniable fact. If a white man was doing this to Zimbabwe, the UN, Mbeki and Bono and would be throwing a fit.

Why is the world so colored blind? A black leader in Africa can be a despot and starve his people, rig elections and enforce farcical laws through the use of violence. God forbid that anybody raise a hand (or even a voice) to stop him. All the while the UN allows Arabs to kill blacks in Darfur. Can't call it genocide, or the UN would have to act. Is it a coincidence that the UN is run by a black African, or is it just poetic justice?

Regards,

Terry

I don't see why Mugabe changing the constitution is a big deal. He does not obey the law now, so it really does not matter what the law is - he still will not obey it.

mugrabe should be his name

" If we ignore history it will repeat it self"It all basicly started in Rhodesia along time ago. I do have a feeling that hunting Africa will not be a dream for our grand childrens grandchildren. Charlie