Harare - Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken the lead in the counting of votes on Thursday from this week's presidential election, according to the official results.
With nine out of ten provinces declared, Mnangagwa had 2,147,505 votes to Chamisa's 1,929,704, according to tallies from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
The ZEC adjourned the results for 60 minutes before releasing the result from the last province of Mashonaland West, a ZANU-PF stronghold.
International observers urged the electoral commission to release the tally as soon as possible to avoid further violence after six people were killed on Wednesday in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters.
According to results released by the Commissioner Qhubani Moyo earlier on Thursday, Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF have amassed a total of 144 seats in Zimbabwe’s National Assembly while the MDC Alliance got 64. There are 210 contestable seats.
The election is Zimbabwe's first since the army ousted Robert Mugabe last November.
Mnangagwa, 75, came to power via a soft coup d’etat last November. Chamisa, 40 came to the top job in the opposition after founding president Morgan Tsvangirai died in February.