Zimbabwe’s opposition party today declared its leader Morgan Tsvangirai the rightful winner of the presidential election as official results showed Robert Mugabe’s party had lost control of the parliament.

The Movement for Democratic Change said that Mr Tsvangirai had won more than the 50 per cent of the vote needed to win the presidency outright.

It claimed that Mr Tsvangirai had secured 50.3 per cent of the vote to President Robert Mugabe's 43.8 per cent, based on its own tally of the results posted up outside individual polling stations after the ballot.

"President Richard Morgan Tsvangirai has won this election, in respect of attaining the majority required under the electoral act. He has won it without a run off. We wait anxiously to see whether ZEC will confirm that,'' said Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary general.

"We appeal to certain sectors to simply concede and avoid embarrassment.''

'He added that ''somebody (Mugabe) should concede that a run off really doesn’t need to be held," contrary to views "held in certain elderly quarters."

But, in a significant concession, he added that, ''under protest'', Mr Tsvangirai would consent to take part in a second round presidential run-off vote if necessary - an indication that the MDC is keen to avoid a repeat of the violence after the recent, disputed Kenyan elections.

This afternoon the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced most of the remaining results of the parliamentary elections, confirming that an earthquake had taken place in Zimbabwean politics.

The Commission said that Zanu (PF) had lost its previously unassailable majority in the Zimbabwean House of Assembly, taking 93 of the 206 contested seats to the MDC's total of 105. A further seat has gone to an independent, and the handful of seats left to be announced are not enough for Zanu (PF) to keep control of the 210-seat assembly.

No official word has yet emerged from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on the presidential ballot.

The long-awaited results were issued hours after the first chink in the five-day news blackout since Saturday's elections, when the Zimbabwean Government admitted for the first time the scale of its losses.

A report this morning in the state-controlled Herald newspaper , the mouthpiece of the Government, acknowledged that Mr Mugabe had not won the presidential vote, but claimed that no candidate had won an overall majority and that there was likely to be a new round of presidential voting.

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