Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF has won a majority of the contested seats in a parliamentary election denounced by the opposition and Western powers as a sham, according to incomplete official results.
Mr Mugabe's party was just nine short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution.
With results in from 98 of the 120 seats contested in yesterday's poll, ZANU-PF had notched up 62, against 35 for Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change and one independent.
Mr Mugabe is legally entitled to appoint the remaining 30 members of the 150-seat parliament.
Mr Tsvangirai said the party would not mount court challenges as it did unsuccesfully in the other polls and hinted his supporters might take to the streets.
Germany today added its voice to other Western countries who condemned the election as a sham. Britain said the poll was fundamentally flawed and further weakened Mr Mugabe's legitimacy.
Mr Tsvangirai, who has accused Mr Mugabe of using repressive laws, political threats and even access to food supplies to engineer a victory, said the MDC had noted electoral fraud ranging from intimidation to thousands of extra votes cast in constituencies won by the ruling party. "We are deeply disturbed by the fraudulent activities we have unearthed ... we do not accept that this represents the national sentiment," he told a news conference.
The MDC accuses Mr Mugabe of wrecking a once prosperous economy through mismanagement that triggered rocketing inflation, high unemployment and food shortages.
ZANU-PF officials rejected the charges, saying the vote was run by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission set up this year as part of a package of democratic reforms. "If they say there was fraud, where were their polling agents when it was being done?" ZANU-PF elections director Elliott Manyika said.
The opposition must win 76 seats to take the election, while ZANU-PF needs just 46 because it is guaranteed a further 30 places in the 150-member house by presidential appointment.
Voter turnout calculated from official figures was around 42 per cent, compared to 48 per cent in the last poll in 2000. Electoral officials and independent observers said anywhere from 10 to 25 per cent of voters were turned away from polling stations in six of Zimbabwe's ten provinces either for lacking proper identity documents or being at the wrong voting centre.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai - who has accused Mr Mugabe of stealing previous polls in both 2000 and 2002 - said the 81-year-old president had fixed victory again. "We believe the people of Zimbabwe must defend their votes, their right to a free and a fair election ... this is what has been denied," he told supporters in Harare.