Zimbabwe: The leader of Zimbabwe's opposition party yesterday called on the country's population to "defend their vote" after he claimed the government had stolen an election for the third time in five years.
By early evening the ruling Zanu PF party had accumulated at least 46 of the 120 contestable seats, thereby securing a majority of parliament's 150 seats.
A total of 30 parliamentary seats are allocated to individuals at the pleasure of the country's President, Robert Mugabe. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party had acquired 31 seats by the same time.
Last night President Robert Mugabe's party announced the winning of enough seats to secure a parliamentary majority.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was "deeply concerned about the fraudulent activities" unearthed by the party in a number of rural constituencies while the nation went to the polls on Thursday.
The MDC seemed resigned to the loss of some of the 57 seats the party won in 2000, with some observers predicting it might well drop below the critical threshold of 50 seats.
A two-thirds majority would allow Mr Mugabe to change the constitution through parliament, and a main MDC objective throughout the campaign has been to deny Zanu PF this goal.
The former union leader said that, after consulting a number of MDC polling agents who watched the voting process, the party was of the opinion that at least 10 per cent, and in some instances significantly more, of voters in constituencies had not been allowed to vote.
Other discrepancies in the voting system were revealed as the day wore on in relation to the number of votes a candidate received when compared to the number of votes that were cast.
As an example the new constituency of Manyane in Mashonaland west was cited.
Here the Zanu-PF candidate won the seat by 15,448 votes to the MDC candidate's 8,312. However, according to the Electoral Commission only 14,812 people cast valid votes.
Monitors from South African Development Countries (SADC), including South Africa, are likely to give the election a general clean bill of health.
Other international observers are expected to describe the election as showing some technical improvements on 2000 and 2002 but still marred by serious flaws.
EU embassies were also among the international observers monitoring the polls throughout the country, but it is not yet known what assessment they will make.
However, the ambassadors, including Ireland's, are likely to send detailed assessments to their capitals over the weekend.
As the results started to trickle in from around 6am the MDC party went into an impressive lead and by mid-morning it had accumulated 28 seats to Zanu PF's paltry four.
However, these results were all from the urban constituencies within Harare and Bulawayo, the nation's second city, which have been MDC strongholds for years.
The mood among Harare's politically sensitive population was particularly jubilant at that stage, and there was an air of expectancy that maybe the opposition would win the day.
However, the MDC leadership all but admitted defeat by the time it held its press conference at party headquarters in the city centre by 11am.
"We do not accept that this [ the election result] represents the national sentiment and we say this government has fraudulently once again betrayed the people," Mr Tsvangirai said.
"It has taken them down a garden path and is leading them to believe they are going through a process which is democratically transparent and that at the end of the day would reveal the true will of the people.
"Unfortunately this has not been the case, and the nation once more is being thrown into uncertainty by the selfish and dictatorial tendencies of Zanu PF," he said bitterly.
As the day wore on Mr Tsvangirai's predictions started to become reality, and Zanu PF, which stands for the Zimbabwean African National Union Patriotic Front, began to eat into the MDC's early lead. By early evening Zanu PF had accumulated 34 seats, three more than the MDC.
