By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - More delayed election results startedtrickling in on Thursday as crisis-stricken Zimbabwe anxiouslyawaited a leadership meeting expected to discuss the biggestchallenge to President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
Amid uncertainty over whether Mugabe will be able to hangon to power, authorities said results of elections to thesenate, the upper house of parliament -- which must precedepresidential results -- had been delayed by "logisticalproblems".
According to the first batch of results issued by theZimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Thursday night,opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for DemocraticChange (MDC) and Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF each won five seatsout of 60 contested.
Zimbabweans have been eager for word on Mugabe's fate sincehe lost control of parliament on Wednesday for the first time.
The country has been waiting since Saturday to hear whetherMugabe has also been defeated in the presidential vote, as theMDC says.
The MDC, and many Zimbabweans, believe the unprecedenteddelay in issuing results masks attempts by Mugabe's entourageto find a way out of the crisis.
Mugabe faces deep discontent as Zimbabwe suffers with theworld's highest inflation rate of more than 100,000 percent, avirtually worthless currency and severe food and fuelshortages.
Ruling ZANU-PF party sources said the president would chaira party leadership meeting called for Friday.
Senior ZANU-PF official Didymus Mutasa declined to commenton whether the party was planning for a runoff against MDCleader Morgan Tsvangirai, although another official saidearlier it was ready for a vote and would win it.
"All I can confirm is there is a politburo meeting," saidMutasa, the party secretary for administration.
Analysts said Mugabe was believed to have convened theleadership to discuss their next move after ZANU-PF's firstdefeat in a parliamentary election and to gauge how muchsupport there was for him running in a second roundpresidential poll.
The United States voiced concern about possiblemanipulation of the vote count.
"Any fair-minded observer has to have serious concernsabout the fact that these results have not been released yet,"said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged that theelection results be declared "faithfully and accurately."
"Any attempt to tamper with these results would be rejectedby the people of Zimbabwe as well as by the internationalcommunity," he said in a statement.
ZANU-PF projections show Mugabe failing to win a majorityfor the first time since he took power after independence fromBritain in 1980. But they also show Tsvangirai falling short ofthe required absolute majority to avoid a second round.
All the signs are that Mugabe, a liberation war leaderstill respected in Africa, is in the worst trouble of his ruleafter facing an unprecedented challenge in the electionsbecause of the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said earlier theparty was ready for a second round, in the strongest indicationyet that Mugabe intends to stand, despite calls by theopposition to concede defeat and avoid embarrassment.
The MDC says Tsvangirai won an absolute majority, based onits own tallies, and no re-run is necessary.
NO CLEAR WINNER
In an interview with Reuters Television, Matonga added: "Wethink ... there may not be a clear winner of the presidentialone (vote) and it points to a re-run."
In his first public appearance since the March 29 election,Mugabe met the head of an African Union election observer teamat his residence in Harare, state television reported.
Asked about his meeting with Mugabe, Sierra Leone's formerPresident Ahmad Tejan Kabbah told ZTV: "He looked very relaxed,and is of the view that the problems of the country will beresolved amicably, and he is very relaxed about it."
In Pretoria, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who hasmediated between Mugabe and the opposition, called on all sidesto respect the outcome of the election.
"We would continue to hope that we will achieve thisoutcome, that nobody would be contesting the results," SAPAnews agency quoted him as telling reporters.
Final results of the election for parliament's lower houseshowed the MDC won 99 seats. ZANU-PF won 97 and a breakaway MDCfaction won 10. One independent candidate won a seat.
"Our consistent demand is that the results that have beenpublished in 9,400 polling stations are published for thepresidential election, because it's important the result comesout clear and soon," David Miliband, foreign secretary offormer colonial ruler Britain told Sky News.
Authorities have limited the international media's accessto Zimbabwe, and on Thursday Zimbabwean police said they hadarrested two foreign journalists, including a New York Timesreporter, for working without accreditation.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Banya, Muchena Zigomo,MacDonald Dzirutwe, Cris Chinaka and Gordon Bell inJohannesburg; writing by Barry Moody; eiting by Michael Georgyand Andrew Roche)
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