Robert Mugabe has won yet another seat in parliament following the first results from the election recount.

Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) was confirmed as the winner, by a mere difference of one vote, of both the election for a seat in parliament and the largely symbolic senate in the Goromonzi West constituency, a rural district near the capital, The Herald newspaper reported.

While no further results from the recount were released the opposition has demanded a Goromonzi recount.

Recounts that began over the weekend in 23 districts, most won by opposition candidates, are crucial for the ruling party who has lost control by a handful of seats for the first time in its 28 year rule.

The MDC was initially declared to have taken 109 seats against 97 for Zanu-PF in the 210-seat chamber, but Mugabe's party would regain its majority if it could reverse the results in seven or more of the seats under review.

POWER SHARING PROPOSED

Commentators have proposed that SADC, a 14-nation southern African bloc that has been mediating in the Zimbabwe crisis, take steps to bring the opposition and ruling Zanu-PF parties together in a transitional power-sharing deal.

Columnist Dr. Obediah Mazombwe, of The Herald, said regional leaders, along with the progressive international community, could bring together key players: Mugabe's party, the opposition, former colonial ruler Britain and the United States.

He further commented, The situation in Zimbabwe is dire, but all is not lost. Whilst the ruling party must stop behaving like a wounded buffalo, the opposition must stop its hysterics and lapses into delusion.

A unity government would then be expected to reform the nation's constitution and organize fresh elections under regional and international supervision, he said.

Calls by independent Civic groups proposing an alliance with Mugabe was met with rejection by the opposition.

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