As of Friday afternoon, official results for Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections show that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has won 31 constituencies, against the 26 for the ruling ZANU-PF. The MDC needs 76 seats to take control of the legislature.
Reginald Matchaba-Hove is the national chairperson for the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network, which supplied more than six thousand monitors to the eight thousand polling stations nationwide. He told VOA reporter William Eagle that among the MDC's wins are two constituencies it had lost to the ruling party in by-elections: Kadoma in Mashonaland West and Zengeza in southeastern Harare.
Meanwhile, the ruling party has taken the constituency of Chimanimani, which was formerly held by white MP Roy Bennet. The ruling party has also one of the 10 constituencies in the capital, Harare South, a new area created largely out of white-owned farms that were resettled with black owners by the government.
