President Robert Mugabe's party has failed to secure control of Zimbabwe's parliament in a partial recount of March 29 elections, results showed on Saturday, handing the ruling party its first defeat in 28 years.
Results of a parallel presidential poll have never been released, and Mugabe has been preparing for a run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tsvangirai says he won outright and his party has rejected both the recount and any run-off.
For the first time since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, the MDC wrested a parliamentary majority from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF in the March 29 poll, triggering a recount of 23 out of 210 constituencies.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said that in the 14 out of 23 seats recounted so far, the original results was confirmed. ZANU-PF had triggered the recount by accusing election officials of taking bribes to undercount votes for Mugabe's party.
To win back a parliamentary majority, the ruling party needed to win nine more seats than it did in the first count. Only nine are left to be counted - but ZANU-PF already won three of those in the first count.
Delays in the recount and in announcing the presidential result have brought growing international pressure on Mugabe, 84, and stoked fears of vote-rigging and bloodshed in a country suffering an economic collapse.
The MDC dismissed the recount again on Saturday, regardless of the results.
"Our position remains the same. We don't recognise the recount. It is a charade. The original results stand as far as we are concerned," said an MDC spokesman.
CRACKDOWN
