DATE=03/13/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ZIMBABWE ELECTION (S)

NUMBER=2-287487

BYLINE=CHALLISS MCDONOUGH

DATELINE=HARARE

INTERNET=

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Almost all of the official results are in for Zimbabwe's presidential election. Incumbent President Robert Mugabe appears to have won a landslide victory. According to the registrar-general, Mr. Mugabe took roughly 55 percent of the vote, compared to about 42 percent for opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. V-O-A's Challiss McDonough reports from Harare.

TEXT: President Mugabe and his party, ZANU-P-F, have been predicting a huge victory for months. But until this week, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai believed he could earn enough votes to take the presidency.

According to official results, Mr. Tsvangirai won easily in the larger cities, Harare and Bulawayo, as well as the southern provinces of Matabeleland. But Mr. Mugabe won by massive margins in many rural areas of the country -- in some constituencies by more than 30-thousand votes.

Even before the results were in, several domestic observer groups and Western countries had already condemned the election as not free or fair, including the European Union, Norway and the United States.

They say tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were not able to vote in Harare, despite an extra day being added to the voting period. Many people were turned away when polling stations closed at the end of the third day.

The critics also say the poll was marred by pre-election violence, mostly blamed on Mr. Mugabe's party, ZANU-P-F. (Signed)

NEB/CEM/GE