Military

DATE=4/1/2005

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ZIMBABWE/ELECTIONS

NUMBER=2-323651

BYLINE=TENDAI MAPHOSA

DATELINE=HARARE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Opposition May Not Accept Result of Zimbabwe Poll

INTRO: The leader of the Zimbabwe's leading opposition party has given the strongest hint yet that his party may not accept the result of Thursday's election. With almost half of the results announced Morgan Tsvangirai has described the poll as a massive fraud. From Harare, Tendai Maphosa has the details.

TEXT: Morgan Tsvangirai leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was quoted by the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, as alleging what he called massive fraud during Thursday's election.

The AFP did not elaborate on Mr. Tsvangirai's comments but he is quoted as saying the unspecified fraud may have to do with President Robert Mugabe's desire to get a two-thirds majority which will enable him to change the constitution.

By late Friday afternoon, vote count results were known for 57 of the 120 seats at stake. The MDC has won 31 of those seats, mostly in its urban strongholds of Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city.

Zanu-PF which lost all seats in Harare in 2000 to the MDC, has won one back in Harare South, a constituency that had its boundaries re-drawn to include an army barracks. The ruling party has lost all seats in Bulawayo.

As expected, Zanu-PF is making a strong showing in the countryside, where it gets most of its support. One of the casualties in a rural constituency is Heather Bennett, who stood in place of her jailed husband Roy. Mr. Bennett is serving a twelve month sentence with labor for shoving a government minister to the floor during a heated parliamentary debate.

Mrs. Bennett's loss reduces the number of white politicians in the house to two. David Coltart and Trudy Stevenson where re-elected while Iain Kay, who was trying to win a seat for the first time, lost.

The MDC challenged 38 results in the 2000 poll. But by Wednesday, when the house was dissolved, the handful of Zanu-PF legislators whose victory was nullified by the High Court were still sitting in parliament, as they had appealed to the Supreme Court.

In that election, the MDC -- which was formed less than a year before -- won 57 seats. Zanu-PF got 62 and one seat went to a smaller party.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is announcing the results as they trickle in. It has said that the announcement of results will not go beyond 48 hours, after polling stations closed at 7:00pm local time on Thursday. (SIGNED)

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