Mugabe party wins huge majority in Zimbabwe parliament

President Robert Mugabe’s party has won at least a two-thirds majority in in the Zimbabwean parliament, enough to amend the country’s constitution, according to a tally of official results.

Friday’s results showed Mugabe had won 142 seats of 180 for the 210-member chamber declared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Mugabe’s rival and prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has called the poll a “huge farce”, amid allegations of electoral irregularities and manipulation.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it could take to the streets to challenge the result if the 89-year-old leader and his party, ZANU-PF, won the vote.

A local monitoring group has also said that the poll was “seriously compromised”.

However, the two main observer groups have broadly endorsed the election, saying it was free and peaceful.

Earlier reports from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Zanu-PF had won 142 seats but this was later corrected following some recounts.

The AFP news agency reports that 186 seats have been declared with 24 results still to come.

If Zanu-PF clinches a two-thirds majority it will be able to change Zimbabwe’s constitution.

African Union (AU) mission head Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed the complaints of fraud, saying the election was fair and free “from the campaigning point of view”.

He acknowledged incidents “that could have been avoided and even tended to have breached the law” but added: “All in all, up to the close of the polls, we do not believe that these incidences (incidents) will amount to the result not representing the will of the people.”

The former Nigerian president added: “I have never seen an election that is perfect. The process continues and we have to limit our comments.”

Monitors from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) described the elections as “free and peaceful” but said it was too early to call them fair.

“In democracy we not only vote, not only campaign, but accept the hard facts, particularly the outcome,” said Sadc mission head Bernard Membe.

The AU assessment sharply contrasted to that of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) – the largest group of domestic monitors with some 7,000 people on the ground.

It said on Thursday that the elections were “seriously compromised”, with as many as one million people unable to cast their ballots.

Mugabe, 89, is running for a seventh term.

His Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Friday that Zanu-PF was “headed for an unprecedented landslide”.

“If anyone is dissatisfied, the courts are there. I invite Tsvangirai to go to court if he has any grounds to justify what he has been saying,” he told journalists.

Under Zimbabwean law, seven days are set aside for legal challenges with another two days for rulings to be made. After that, the swearing-in of a new government takes place.

Source: Agencies / THE TIMES OF EARTH