President Robert Mugabe is fighting to survive the biggest crisis of his 28-year rule 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.
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 a 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.
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 night.
Harare's U.N. ambassador said Mugabe had no intention of living outside Zimbabwe.
Asked by BBC television if he would go to another country to spend his retirement, Boniface Chidyausiku said:
"Robert Mugabe is Zimbabwean. Born, bred in Zimbabwe. He has lived his life to work for Zimbabwe. Why should he choose another country?"
In final results of the election for parliament's lower house, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 99 seats. Mugabe's ZANU-PF won 97 seats and a breakaway MDC faction won 10. One independent candidate won a seat. The outcome of senate vote will be issued next.
No official results have emerged in the presidential vote.
But all the signs are that Mugabe, a liberation war leader still respected in Africa, is in the worst trouble of his rule after facing an unprecedented challenge in the elections.
Widely blamed for economic collapse of his once prosperous nation, Mugabe has faced growing discontent with the world's highest inflation rate of more than 100,000 percent, a virtually worthless currency and severe food and fuel shortages.
The opposition and international observers said Mugabe rigged the last presidential election in 2002. But some analysts say discontent over daily hardships is too great for him to fix the result this time without risking major unrest.
