Brussels - The European Union on Monday invited Zimbabwe's government to publish the final results of the country's elections "as soon as possible," in order to avoid fuelling accusations of vote-rigging by President Robert Mugabe. "We consider that it would be opportune that Zimbabwe's electoral commission should publish the final results as soon as possible, to demonstrate its independence and to avoid unnecessary speculation," said John Clancy, spokesman for the EU's development and humanitarian aid commission.
Clancy said the EU executive would not be commenting on the outcome of the vote until "all official results are in."
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has expressed alarm that pro-Mugabe officials may be trying to cook the election results.
With only 25 of 210 seats of the parliamentary assembly counted so far, the MDC has taken 13 seats to the ruling Zanu-PF's 12, the state-controlled Zimbabwe Election Commission announced.
The close race suggested by the official results contrasted with the MDC's own unofficial vote count, which showed the party taking 96 out of 128 constituencies so far.
The European Commission provided 90.9 million euros (143.6 million dollars) in aid to Zimbabwe in 2007. Of this, just over 30 million euros was destined for humanitarian reasons.
