President Robert Mugabe said that he hoped to stay in power until he was 100 as he celebrated an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections that all but his supporters and a few African neighbors said were rigged.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) refused to accept the election results, saying Thursday's vote was flawed -- a view shared by the US and Britain. The MDC held talks with southern African observers to point out huge discrepancies in the results but made no attempt to organize mass protests.
"This is a moment of victory for my party and the victory of my party translates itself, naturally, into a victory for our country," the 81-year-old Mugabe declared as results showed that he had cleared the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution.
His ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) won 78 seats, while the MDC got 41, according to final results issued on Saturday by the chief election officer. An independent candidate picked up one seat. Under Zimbabwean law, Mugabe has the power to appoint an additional 30 lawmakers in the 150-seat chamber.
The results clear the way for Mugabe to set up a second parliamentary chamber representing traditional chiefs, retired politicians and other eminent Zimbabweans without holding a referendum. Critics charge that the autocratic Mugabe wants to pack the senate with cronies to cement his influence and to pick a successor without elections.
But Mugabe made it plain that he didn't plan on stepping down any time soon.
"When I am a century old," he laughed, responding to a question about his retirement plans.
He was only half joking.
Mugabe, one of Africa's longest-serving rulers, has no obvious heir apparent. His appointment of Joyce Mujuru as the country's first female vice president -- and thus a potential successor -- sparked a power struggle last year.
Parliament speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, once tipped to take over from Mugabe, lost his seat in Thursday's elections. Jonathan Moyo, the former information minister and architect of Zimbabwe's repressive media laws who was sacked after he challenged Mujuru's appointment, was elected as an independent in a rebuff to Mugabe.
The MDC held crisis talks but came up with no clear plan of action.
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