President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe suffered a humiliating defeat yesterday in a referendum on a draft constitution his opponents said was designed to entrench his 20-year rule.
The referendum was a crucial test for Mr Mugabe's government before general elections due in April, in which it will be challenged by a new broad-based opposition movement spurred on by the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
The Registrar-General, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, told a news conference the opposition's No campaign had won 697,754 votes or 55 per cent of the total against 578,210 for the Yes vote after counting was completed in all 120 constituencies.
With a total of some five million Zimbabweans eligible to vote the turnout was about 25 per cent.
There was no immediate reaction from the government. But official sources said earlier that the atmosphere in the corridors of power was grim as the defeat will be seen as a public vote of no confidence.
The opposition had claimed it was heading for victory hours before the final result, but the government side had predicted the new constitution would be narrowly approved.
Under the referendum act Mr Mugabe is not obliged to respect the outcome of the vote, but he promised beforehand that he would do so, and Mr Jonathan Moyo, a spokesman for the government-sponsored Constitutional Commission that drew up the draft, said that as far as he knew that remained the position.
"It's a political process and it would be suicidal for anyone to ignore the result," he said before the result was declared.
The draft constitution also had clauses allowing for compulsory purchase of mostly white-owned commercial farms for resettlement.
Mr Lovemore Madhuku, deputy chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of civic and opposition groups which campaigned against the new constitution, said half the NCA's referendum monitors had been locked out of the vote-counting process in what he saw as attempts to rig the vote.
Mr Mudede dismissed allegations of vote-rigging as "absolute rubbish".
Political analysts had expected the Yes campaign to make a much bigger showing in rural constituencies.
Rural Zimbabweans constitute about 70 per cent of the 12.5 million population.
There were no independent international observers during the vote, which NCA monitors said was badly organised.
Mr Peter Hain, Britain's junior Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Africa, said: "It has been a deeply flawed referendum.
"Whatever the result, it's clear there's a great deal of discontent in the country, and I'm not surprised, with inflation rampant and the economy almost bankrupt because of misguided policies," he said. "Zimbabwe is poised on the brink of an abyss; it's make-or-break time," he added.