President Robert Mugabe's party has failed to win back control of Zimbabwe's parliament in a partial vote recount.
For the first time in 28 years, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change wrested a parliamentary majority from President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF.
The 29 March election triggered a recount of 23 out of 210 constituencies.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said 14 out of the 23 seats had been recounted so far, and the original result was confirmed in all of them.
To win back a parliamentary majority, the ruling party needed to win nine more seats than it did in the first count.
But even if ZANU-PF won all the seats left in the recount, it would fall short of the majority because it had already won three of the remaining nine seats being recounted.
Results of a parallel presidential election, which are also being partially recounted, have not been released.
The MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat his old foe Robert Mugabe in the election.
A delay in announcing the presidential result and a recount of some parliamentary votes has brought growing international pressure on the 84-year-old president and stoked fears of bloodshed in a country suffering an economic collapse.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe police have detained 215 people in a raid on the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the capital Harare.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the detainees will be screened against participation in politically-motivated criminal activities around the country.
Armed riot police ransacked the offices of the MDC where some victims of post-election violence had taken refuge and drove the activists to a police station in a bus and some trucks.
The raid came on the back of reports in the state media that MDC activists had burned down homesteads belonging to President Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
The police also raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a group of non-governmental organisations considered the only reliable independent source of information about the 29 March elections.
Yesterday, President Mugabe resorted to strong measures used in the past to keep the opposition in check, in what Human Rights Watch said was a stepped up campaign of organized terror and torture against opposition activists and ordinary Zimbabweans.
The government denies it is waging a violent campaign.
Armed riot police raided the headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change and detained scores of people in the toughest measures against the MDC since disputed elections last month.
