Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party has won a huge majority in parliament in this week's elections, officials say.
With most seats declared, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
said Zanu-PF had won 137 seats in the 210-seat chamber, just short of
two-thirds.
Results in the presidential race have yet to be announced.
Mr Mugabe's main rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has already dismissed the election as "a sham".
Mr Tsvangirai, 61, who heads the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) and is running for president against Mr Mugabe, said the
vote was "null and void".
A local monitoring group has also said that the poll was "seriously compromised".
However, the two main observer groups have broadly endorsed the election, saying it was free and peaceful.
Earlier reports from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
said Zanu-PF had won 142 seats but this was later corrected following
some recounts.
The AFP news agency reports that 186 seats have been declared with 24 results still to come.
If Zanu-PF clinches a two-thirds majority it will be able to change Zimbabwe's constitution.
Uneasy coalition
African Union (AU) mission head Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed
the complaints of fraud, saying the election was fair and free "from the
campaigning point of view".
He acknowledged incidents "that could have been avoided and
even tended to have breached the law" but added: "All in all, up to the
close of the polls, we do not believe that these incidences (incidents)
will amount to the result not representing the will of the people."
The former Nigerian president added: "I have never seen an
election that is perfect. The process continues and we have to limit our
comments."
Monitors from the Southern African Development Community
(Sadc) described the elections as "free and peaceful" but said it was
too early to call them fair.
"In democracy we not only vote, not only campaign, but accept
the hard facts, particularly the outcome," said Sadc mission head
Bernard Membe.
The AU assessment sharply contrasted to that of the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) - the largest group of domestic monitors
with some 7,000 people on the ground.
It said on Thursday that the elections were "seriously
compromised", with as many as one million people unable to cast their
ballots.
The ZESN said potential voters were much more
likely to be turned away from polling stations in urban areas, where
support for Mr Tsvangirai is strong, than in President Mugabe's rural
strongholds.
The group also alleged significant irregularities before the
poll. It said that 99.7% of rural voters were registered on the
electoral roll in June compared with only 67.9% of urban voters.
Zanu-PF and the MDC have formed an uneasy coalition
government since 2009. That deal ended deadly violence that erupted
after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Mr Mugabe, 89, is running for a seventh term.
His Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Friday that Zanu-PF was "headed for an unprecedented landslide".
"If anyone is dissatisfied, the courts are there. I invite
Tsvangirai to go to court if he has any grounds to justify what he has
been saying,'' he told journalists.
Under Zimbabwean law, seven days are set aside for legal
challenges with another two days for rulings to be made. After that, the
swearing-in of a new government takes place.
The BBC's Andrew Harding in Johannesburg says some strong legal challenges are likely, with perhaps a few results overturned.
Amid rising tension, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai to send "clear messages of calm" to their supporters.
His spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said Mr Ban wanted any election disputes to be handled "transparently and fairly".
BBC
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