The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said Mugabe had also been defeated in a presidential election last Saturday and should concede defeat.

Mugabe's aides angrily dismissed the MDC claim, hinting the opposition could be punished for publishing its own tallies despite warnings this would be regarded as an attempted coup.

But a state-owned newspaper and projections by Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party conceded that he had failed to win a majority for the first time in 28 years.

In final results of the election for parliament's lower house, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 99 seats. Mugabe's ZANU-PF won 97 seats and a breakaway MDC faction won 10. One independent candidate won a seat. The outcome of senate vote will be issued next. No official results have emerged in the presidential vote.

Widely blamed for economic collapse of his once prosperous nation, Mugabe has faced growing discontent with the world's highest inflation rate of more than 100,000 percent, a virtually worthless currency and severe food and fuel shortages.

The opposition and international observers said Mugabe rigged the last presidential election in 2002. But some analysts say discontent over daily hardships is too great for him to fix the result this time without risking major unrest.