By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling party edged ahead ofthe main opposition on Tuesday with over half of parliamentaryelection results released and concerns grew that PresidentRobert Mugabe was trying to rig the vote.
Riot police in armoured carriers patrolled two of Harare'sopposition strongholds overnight and residents were told tostay off the normally bustling streets.
Three days after the most important vote sinceindependence, only 109 out of 210 parliamentary constituencieshad been declared, showing the ruling ZANU-PF two seats aheadof the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
No results have been announced for the presidential vote,in which Mugabe faces the most formidable political challengeof his 28 years in power -- from old rival Morgan Tsvangiraiand ruling party defector Simba Makoni.
The opposition MDC says it won according to its own tallyand has accused the veteran leader of delaying the issuing ofthe results in a bid to steal the election, which Zimbabweanshoped would ease daily hardships.
Zimbabweans are suffering the world's highest inflation ofmore than 100,000 percent, food and fuel shortages, and anHIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline inlife expectancy. Mugabe's foes blame him for the economicdisaster.
"It is now clear that there is something fishy. The wholething is suspicious and totally unacceptable," MDC spokesmanNelson Chamisa said.
Mugabe has denied rigging the election and his governmentwarned that any early victory claim would be regarded as anattempted coup.
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
An independent Zimbabwean election monitoring groupforecast Tsvangirai, leader of the largest faction of the MDC,would win the most votes in the presidential poll but not by abig enough margin to avoid a second round.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said itsprojections gave him 49.4 percent. It predicted Mugabe wouldwin 41.8 percent and Makoni would get 8.2 percent.
Tsvangirai was due to hold a news conference at 0800 GMT(9:00 a.m. British time), his first since voting ended.
Seven European countries and the United States called onZimbabwe's Electoral Commission to quickly release the results.
Slovenia, which holds the EU Presidency, also called for aspeedy release of the results.
"This would end the current uncertainty and prevent therisk of rising tensions," the EU presidency said in astatement.
Electoral Commission chairman George Chiweshe said the slowpace was due to the complexity of holding presidential,parliamentary and local polls together for the first time.
Although the odds seemed stacked against Mugabe, in powersince independence in 1980, analysts believe his iron grip onthe country and solid backing from the armed forces couldenable him to ignore the results and declare victory.
Marwick Khumalo, head of an observer group from thePan-African parliament, said the elections themselves werefree, fair and credible overall and on Tuesday the African,Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) observer team also endorsed thepolls.
"The ACP Election observer mission was particularlyimpressed by the calm and peaceful atmosphere that prevailedbefore, during and immediately after polling day," thestate-owned Herald newspaper quoted the ACP as saying.
Official results so far showed ZANU-PF with 53 seats, MDCwith 51 and a breakaway MDC faction with five. Five of the newseats the MDC won were from traditional ZANU-PF strongholds.
The MDC said unofficial tallies showed Tsvangirai had 60percent of the presidential vote, twice the total for Mugabe.Private polling organisations also put Tsvangirai ahead.
"In our view, as we stated before, we cannot see thenational trend changing. This means the people have spoken,they've spoken against the dictatorship," MDC Secretary-GeneralTendai Biti said.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya, Macdonald Dzirutwe,Cris Chinaka, Muchena Zigomo and Ingrid Melander in Brussels;editing by Marius Bosch)
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