Zimbabwe poll results contested

Zimbabwe's opposition has slammed the results from the country's election as "scandalous" after Morgan Tsvangirai failed to win an outright majority.

On Friday, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission released results which showed that Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in the election, but not the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a run-off with President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai took 47.9 per cent of the vote on March 29 while Mr Mugabe took 43.2 per cent, said Zimbabwe's Chief Elections Officer Lovemore Sekeramayi.

But the opposition called the results "scandalous", as the party's initial projections showed Mr Tsvangirai had won 50.3 per cent of the vote to end the rule of Mr Mugabe, 84, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

"We won this election outright, and yet what we are being given here as the outcome are some fudged figures meant to save Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF," opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

A top aide to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that Mugabe would run in a second round of presidential balloting.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zanu PF's Secretary for Legal Affairs, said Mugabe had accepted the outcome of the vote.

"ZANU-PF is committed to a total peaceful environment before, during and after the run-off," Mnangagwa said.

Despite fears of vote-rigging during the parliamentary recount, the published results confirmed that the opposition held a majority of seats for the first time in Zimbabwe's history.

But Mr Tsvangirai has raised doubts over whether he would take part in a run-off and has been out of the country since shortly after the vote, trying to keep up international pressure on his rival.

He has suggested he could only contest a second round if it was monitored by United Nations-led foreign observers. The main international observer group during the first round was from Zimbabwe's neighbours.

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