HEAVILY armed police swooped down on opposition headquarters and independent election observers’ offices in Harare yesterday, arresting hundreds in the clearest signal to date that the Zimbabwean government intends to hold on to power.

Riot police and intelligence officers today ransacked Zimbabwe’s opposition party headquarters and the offices of independent election monitors.

The main opposition party to Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe today claimed it was winning the country’s election by a huge margin.

Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission belatedly began announcing official results of elections today in which the opposition claimed to have beaten President Robert Mugabe.