HARARE-- The ruling Zanu PF party has taken a lead in the parliamentary elections of Monday's 30 general election, winning 73 seats so far against 27 for its nearest rival, the main opposition party, the MDC Alliance.
According to results declared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) up to early Wednesday morning local time, the MDC Alliance party was coming a distant second, performing well largely in urban areas where it enjoyed strong support.
Zanu-PF, on the other hand, was performing strongly in rural constituencies, it's traditional stronghold.
And although it was losing to the MDC Alliance in most urban constituencies, the margins were generally narrower than in past elections.
In the rural constituencies Zanu-PF was dominating, the margins against its nearest rival were wider.
Millions of Zimbabweans trooped to polling stations on Monday to elect a new president, and representatives for Parliament and local governments, in the first election in nearly 40 years without the candidature of veteran leader Robert Mugabe.
The ZEC, the body in charge of running elections in the country, said it would announce the results of the poll in batches where counting was completed. The country has 210 constituencies in total, and ZEC said it would
continue to announce more results well into Wednesday morning.
But it said the results of the presidential segment of the poll, in which incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa are the main contenders, will only be announced when counting throughout the country was completed.
Under the law, ZEC has five days in which to declare election results.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK
