March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's biggest opposition party claimed it ended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year reign in last weekend's elections, with only 18 percent of constituency results declared almost two days after polls closed.

The Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, won 58 percent of the presidential vote so far counted and a parliamentary majority, according to a Web site the MDC said was set up by non-governmental organizations and reflected its own assessment. Electoral officials said the party won 19 of 38 parliamentary seats announced so far. Bloomberg wasn't able to independently verify the MDC's assessment.

``The earlier the results are announced, the less the chances are of tampering with the outcome,'' Andebrhan Giorgis, the International Crisis Group's principal adviser for Africa, said in a telephone interview from Nairobi, Kenya.

Mugabe, 84, is part of a generation of southern African leaders who liberated their countries from colonial rule, including Mozambique's Samora Machel, who died in a plane crash in 1986, and Namibia's Sam Nujoma, who stepped down in 2005. Led by Mugabe since the end of white-minority rule in 1980, Zimbabwe has suffered a decade-long recession and the world's highest inflation rate, 100,580 percent, after his seizures of white- owned commercial farms caused export income to plummet.

``He is the last of that generation of leaders,'' said Chris Maroleng, an analyst at the Pretoria, South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies. ``They succumbed to the allure of power and status and in many ways the emancipatory ideals they used were lost in a quest to consolidate their power.''

`Mugabe Can't Win'

In elections in 2000, 2002 and 2005, early vote counts from urban areas put the MDC ahead before rural-area results allowed Mugabe to claim victory.

The first constituencies won by the MDC included Chegutu West, about 100 kilometers (56 miles) west of Harare, and in the eastern city of Mutare, an opposition stronghold, results posted on the Web site of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. showed.

Of the seats announced, the MDC won eight in Harare to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's one. Almost all of Zanu-PF's seats were in rural areas.

``If Zanu-PF continues doing this, continues delaying and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission continues delaying, they are going to end up with an insurmountable credibility gap,'' Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary general, said in an interview from Harare today. ``We know we have won this election and they know we have won this election.''

Spoilt Ballots

The independent Web site showed Mugabe winning 37 percent of the presidential vote and Simba Makoni, a 58-year-old former Zanu-PF member and ex-finance minister, 5 percent. It gave the MDC 117 out of the 210 seats to be allocated, Zanu-PF 50 and independents and a splinter group of the MDC that competed separately 20. The other results were yet to be collated.

In some constituencies ``the turn out is very low, about 40 percent,'' Irene Petras, the head of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said. ``They also aren't talking about the spoilt ballot, which is very important given the number of voters that were turned away'' from polling stations.

This year's ballot was held amid accusations by Amnesty International and other human rights groups that the government harassed the opposition and threatened to cut off food supplies to voters who didn't back the ruling party.

Zimbabwe Lawyers said many people were prevented from voting by officials who said they had incorrect identification documents or tried to vote in the wrong area.

Torture Victims

``It would be opportune that the Zimbabwe electoral commission should publish the final results as soon as possible to demonstrate its independence and to avoid unnecessary speculation,'' European Commission spokesman John Clancy told a Brussels press conference today.

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam told reporters in London it was important that there was ``clarity'' about the election results ``as soon as possible.''

George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, and Patrick Chinamasa, Zimbabwe's justice minister, didn't answer calls to their mobile phones.

Chinamasa lost his parliamentary seat, Innocent Chagonda, a Harare-based lawyer, said in an interview, citing state radio. Chinamasa, a 61-year-old Mugabe loyalist, in 2002 banned a number of human rights organizations in Zimbabwe, including the Amani Trust, which counsels torture victims.

The MDC said it leads in Mashonaland Central province and won a majority in the province of Masvingo, both strongholds of Zanu-PF.

Coup d'Etat

Results are posted outside polling stations before being sent to a central collating center, Petras said. Figures from the independent Web site are being circulated via mobile-phone text messages in Harare.

``The MDC has developed a counter strategy to call the election, which creates a caution in Zanu-PF manipulating the election,'' Maroleng said. ``It's a very wise strategy.''

Zimbabwe's government had instructed parties not to release results before official announcements.

Tsvangirai ``announces results, declares himself and the MDC winner and then what?'' Charamba said, according to the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper. ``It is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled.''

A second round of voting will be held within three weeks if none of the presidential candidates win more than 50 percent of the vote. Mugabe said he doesn't expect a runoff as he won the election, the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Latham via the Johannesburg bureau on 1999 or pmrichardson@bloomberg.net; Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 31, 2008 11:01 EDT