Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has won the most seats in parliament, official results showed on Wednesday, as the count continued in the presidential race.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission results showed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF cruising to a big majority after picking up 109 seats in a 210-seat parliament.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party managed to win only 41 seats with results for 58 seats still to be announced, the election body said on Wednesday.
ZANU-PF would need to win 30 more seats to have a two-thirds majority that would allow it to change the constitution at will.
Monday’s vote was Zimbabwe’s first election since long-term President Robert Mugabe was pushed out of office last year.
Reporting from the capital Harare, Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa said the rural vote was key in the elections.
“From what we have seen, ZANU-PF has won by a landslide, and we now wait and see if it will be the same for the presidential elections,” Mutasa said.
“Everyone knew it was the rural vote that was key, the majority of people are in rural areas and since 1980 they have voted for the ruling party,” she added.
