HARARE, April 2 (Xinhua) -- The ruling party of Zimbabwe won 78 seats in Thursday's parliamentary election and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) garnered 41 seats, according to final official results released Saturday.

    The remaining one of the legislature's 120 contested seats went to an independent candidate.

    President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been ruling since Zimbabwe attained political independence on April 18, 1980 from former colonial ruler Britain.

    However, in last parliamentary election held in 2000, the party just got a feeble majority with 62 seats. The MDC, a party launched just one year before that elections, won 57 seats.

    Zimbabwe's parliament, also called House of Assembly has 150 members: 120 elected for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies and 30 appointed members by president, governors and elected chiefs. Enditem