April 03, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

HARARE, April 2: President Robert Mugabe fought to survive the biggest crisis of his rule on Wednesday after losing control of Zimbabwe’s parliament for the first time since taking power after independence.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said Mugabe had also been defeated in a presidential election last Saturday and should concede defeat to avoid embarrassment.

Mugabe’s aides angrily dismissed the MDC claim, hinting the opposition could be punished for publishing its own tallies despite warnings this would be regarded as an attempted coup.

But the state-owned newspaper and projections by Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party conceded that he had failed to win a majority for the first time in 28 years.

Official results of the parliamentary election, which have trickled out slowly since last Saturday’s election, showed that Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF could not outvote the combined opposition seats.

Official figures said the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had taken 96 seats, a breakaway faction 9 and an independent 1 in the 210-seat parliament.

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF has so far taken 94.

Mugabe, 84, faced an unprecedented challenge in the elections after being widely blamed for the economic collapse of his once prosperous nation.

The mainstream MDC faction said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 50.3 per cent of the presidential vote and Mugabe 43.8 per cent according to its own tallies of results posted outside polling stations.

No official results have emerged in the presidential vote.

But all the signs are that Mugabe, a liberation war hero still respected throughout Africa, is in the worst trouble of his rule.

MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti said Tsvangirai had an absolute majority, enough for outright victory, but he would accept a second round runoff against Mugabe “under protest”.

Analysts said the president was likely to be humiliated in a runoff and the defeat in the parliamentary vote would remove some of his power of patronage — a plank of his long and iron rule.

His government called the MDC claim “mischievous”.

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told Sky television: “President Mugabe is going nowhere. We are not going to be pressurised into anything.”

He said: “No-one is panicking around President Mugabe. The army is very solidly behind our president, the police force as well.”

Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, said the MDC was in contempt of the law by announcing results. “You are drifting in very dangerous territory and I hope the MDC is prepared for the consequences,” he said.

Mugabe, known for his fierce and defiant rhetoric, has not been seen in public since voting, despite speculation he would make a television address on Tuesday.

The government appears to have been preparing the population for a runoff by revealing its own projections showing a second round would be required in the statutory three weeks after last Saturday’s vote.—Reuters