There was no outright winner in Zimbabwe's presidential election on March 29, results released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) showed on Friday.

The electoral body said there will be a runoff, but it did not say when the runoff will take place.

According to the released results, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 47.9 percent of the total 1,195,562 votes, followed by incumbent President Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF with 43.2 percent or 1,079,730 votes.

Independent candidates Simba Makoni and Langton Towungana garnered 8.3 percent or 207,470 votes and 0.6 percent or 14,503 votes respectively.

ZEC chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi told journalists at a press briefing that a presidential runoff would be held since no candidate got an outright majority of 51 percent or more.

"Since no candidate has received a majority of the total number of valid votes cast, the provisions of Section 110 (3) of the Electoral Act do apply and a second round shall be held at a date to be advised by the Commission," he said.

Sekeramayi said President Mugabe and Tsvangirai, being the top two candidates, were eligible to participate in the second round.

The ZEC on Thursday called the candidates or their chief election agents for verification and collation of figures.

Mugabe, through his agent, compared their figures with the Commission while the MDC-T indicated that their figures did not tally with those of ZEC.

But on Friday, the MDC Tsvangirai representative Chris Mbanga said he had not been given a chance to verify the figures."We are not happy. I was denied an opportunity to verify the figures," he said.

"They (ZEC) wanted to place the burden of proof on us but then it not for us, it's for them to prove to us how they arrived at the figures," he said, adding he would report the matter to his superiors.

Zimbabweans went to the polls on March 29 to choose a new president, members of parliament and local councilors. MDC Tsvangirai won 99 seats in the Lower House of Assembly against Zanu-PF's 97 seats. Ten seats went to the MDC Mutambara faction and one to an independent candidate.

In the Upper House, Zanu PF got 30 seats, MDC Tsvangirai 24 and MDC Mutambara six.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2008)