Roy Bennett, a leading Zimbabwe opposition figure, has called for a campaign of “passive resistance” after election results showed President Robert Mugabe’s party had won a large majority in parliament.
Roy Bennett, treasurer of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said people should force Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF to “rule by themselves”.
The MDC has already said it will not recognize the results, alleging fraud.
It comes as the party holds emergency meetings to discuss the outcome.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) earlier said Zanu-PF had won 137 seats in the 210-seat chamber – just short of two-thirds – with most seats declared.
Results in the presidential race have yet to be announced.
PM Morgan Tsvangirai, who heads the MDC and is running for president against Robert Mugabe, has already dismissed the election as “a sham”.
Amid rising tension, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to send “clear messages of calm”to their supporters.
His spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said Ban Ki-moon wanted any election disputes to be handled “transparently and fairly”.
The MDC was believed to be holding talks on Friday and Saturday to decide on a response to the results.
Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC has already said it will not recognize the election results, alleging fraud
Its treasurer Roy Bennett said there should be a wave of social disobedience in order to bring the regime to a halt.
“I’m calling on the people of Zimbabwe, who are our constituents and who we represent in the positions we hold, for passive resistance and for total disengagement,” he said.
“And let Zanu-PF rule and rule by themselves and bring the country to a standstill.”
Morgan Tsvangirai, 61, earlier said the vote was “null and void”.
A local monitoring group has also said that the poll was “seriously compromised”.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) – the largest group of domestic monitors with some 7,000 people on the ground – said as many as one million people had been unable to cast their ballots.
It said voting irregularities were much more likely to affect urban areas, where support for Morgan Tsvangirai is strong, than in President Robert Mugabe’s rural strongholds.
However, the two main observer groups have broadly endorsed the election, saying it was free and peaceful.
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: “We do not believe that these incidences [incidents] will amount to the result not representing the will of the people.”
Meanwhile, 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.
South Africa became the latest country to endorse the result, challenging critics to provide evidence of vote-rigging.
Zanu-PF and the MDC have formed an uneasy coalition government since 2009. That deal ended deadly violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Robert Mugabe is running for a seventh term.
If Zanu-PF clinches a two-thirds majority it will be able to change Zimbabwe’s constitution.
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.
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Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe’s party has won a two-thirds majority in parliament in this week’s elections, officials say.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said that Zanu-PF had won 142 seats in the 210-seat chamber.
Analysts say the result is enough for Zanu-PF to change the constitution. Results in the presidential race have yet to be announced.
Earlier, the two main observer groups said voting had been free and peaceful.
African Union mission head Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed complaints of fraud, while another observer urged all parties to “accept the hard facts”.
Robert Mugabe’s party has won a two-thirds majority in parliament in this week’s elections
PM Morgan Tsvangirai, who is challenging Robert Mugabe in the presidential race, has described the election as a “huge farce”.
A local monitoring group has also said that the poll was “seriously compromised”.
Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have formed an uneasy coalition government since 2009.
That deal ended deadly violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Before the latest results were announced, Zanu-PF spokesman Rugaro Gumbo predicted that Robert Mugabe, 89, – who is running for a seventh term – would get at least 70% of the vote in the presidential poll.
“We are expecting a landslide victory,” he was quoted as saying in Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper.
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Zimbabwean presidential and parliamentary elections were “free, honest and credible”, the African Union observer mission’s head has said.
Olusegun Obasanjo said the incidents reported during Wednesday’s poll could not “change the outcome”.
The largest observer group said earlier the poll was “seriously compromised”.
President Robert Mugabe’s party is claiming victory in the election, which was rejected as a “huge farce” by PM Morgan Tsvangirai.
On Wednesday, voters were choosing a president, 210 lawmakers and local councilors. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has five days to declare who won the poll.
First official results from national assembly elections show that Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is taking an early lead. However, the seats announced were mostly in Robert Mugabe’s rural strongholds, correspondents say.
Zanu-PF spokesman Rugaro Gumbo predicted that Robert Mugabe – who is running for a seventh term – would get at least 70% of the vote in the presidential poll.
“We are expecting a landslide victory,” he was quoted as saying in Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper.
Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have shared an uneasy coalition government since 2009 under a deal brokered to end the deadly violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Speaking in the capital Harare on Friday, Olusegun Obasanjo said the elections were fair and free “from the campaigning point of view”.
First official results from national assembly elections show that Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is taking an early lead
The former Nigerian president admitted that there were “incidents that could have been avoided”, but he stressed that the AU observers did not believe they could change the overall outcome of the poll.
His assessment sharply contrasted to that by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) – the largest group of domestic monitors.
It said on Thursday that the elections were “seriously compromised”, with as many as a million people being unable to cast their ballots.
The ZESN said potential voters were much more likely to be turned away from polling stations in urban areas, where support for Morgan Tsvangirai is strong, than in Robert Mugabe’s rural strongholds.
The group also alleged significant registration irregularities before the poll.
But speaking to al-Jazeera, Olusegun Obasanjo questioned ZESN’s conclusions, describing them as “not verifiable”.
He said he was satisfied that the apparent anomalies between registration between urban and rural voters mentioned by ZESN had been explained by the registrar-general, who had the accurate figures for birth and death.
Olusegun Obasanjo also said that Morgan Tsvangirai’s camp should have addressed concerns about the electoral roll before the vote – not after.
On Thursday, Morgan Tsvangirai said the elections were “null and void”.
“Our conclusion is that this has been a huge farce. The credibility of this election has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affected the legitimacy of its outcome.
“It’s a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people.”
Another observer mission – the Southern African Development Community – is expected to give its verdict on the elections later on Friday.
It is illegal to publish unofficial election results in Zimbabwe. Police have warned they would take action against anyone trying to leak early results.
Extra units – some in riot gear – have now been deployed in Harare.
Under the electoral law, if no presidential candidate gains 50% of the ballots, a run-off will be held on September 11.
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