The Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has called for national unity after elections that seriously challenged his ZANU-PF party. Mr Mugabe was speaking after Zanu-PF took 62 of the 150 seats in the assembley. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change won 57. Speaking on state radio, Mr Mugabe said that he looked forward to working with the new parliament.
However, the opposition party has said that it intends to challenge the results in 20 constituencies. The leader of MDC said that his party would seek either recounts or take legal action in constituencies that it lost by less than 500 votes. Despite losing his own seat, Morgan Tsvangirai said that the people of Zimbabwe have voted for change. Mr Tsvangirai said that his party would have won the country's general election if there had not been a state-sponsored terror campaign before the poll. Under the Zimbabwean constitution, President Mugabe has the power to appoint a further thirty MP's. However, ZANU-PF has lost its power to alter the constitution.
