By Angus Shaw
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's party lost control of parliament, the latest official results showed Wednesday, hours after the opposition claimed it also won the presidency.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission results appear to confirm the unravelling of a regime that has ruled this southern African country since independence from Britain three decades ago, in recent years overseeing the collapse of the economy and accused of stifling democracy.
The official results gave the opposition Movement for Democratic Change 105 seats to 93 for Mugabe's Zanu-PF in the 210-seat House of Assembly. One seat went to an independent. That means that even if Zanu-PF wins all the remaining seats, it will not have the 206 seats needed for a majority. Seven of Mugabe's Cabinet ministers have lost their seats, according to official results.
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'They think they can provoke Zanu-PF, and the police and the army' The opposition had 41 of the 120 seats in the old, smaller assembly.
At a news conference earlier Wednesday, Movement for Democratic Change general secretary Tendai Biti said party leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 50,3 percent of the vote in the presidential race held alongside parliamentary balloting Saturday, compared to 43,8 percent for Mugabe.
"We maintain that we have won the presidential election outright without the need for a run-off," Biti said.
The state Herald newspaper on Wednesday predicted a runoff in the first official admission that Zimbabwe's autocratic leader of 28 years has failed to win re-election. A candidate needs 50 percent plus one vote to win outright. A runoff would have to be held within 21 days of the first round.
The opposition said it tallied individual polling station totals posted outside the stations across the country. The figures Biti himself gave at the news conference for votes cast and those garnered by the candidates did not back up his contention that his candidate won 50,3 percent of the vote.
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