Zimbabwe counts votes in key by-election

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwean electoral officials began counting votes on Monday from a key parliamentary by-election held over the weekend.

President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party fielded former army brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri to defend the Marondera West rural constituency, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Harare, in the weekend poll.

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The ruling party held the seat before its MP died in a road accident in August, but the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alleges that ZANU-PF won it in the June parliamentary election by cheating and would lose it in a fair contest.

The MDC -- which won an unprecedented 57 seats to ZANU-PF's 62 out of 120 seats in the June election -- was represented in the Marondera West by-election by Shadreck Chipangura.

A third candidate, Egypt Dzinemunenzva of the little-known Africa National Party, also contested the November 25-26 poll.

"We have started the counting process, and we expect the results sometime late this afternoon," an electoral official told Reuters by telephone from Marondera.

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