DAR ES SALAAM, Dec. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Tanzania's ruling party is cementing its lead in both the presidential and parliamentary elections as the National Electoral Commission announced more results late on Saturday.

    In the 109 constituencies of which parliamentary election results were announced, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party (CCM)claimed 92 elected seats from as many constituencies whereas Tanzania's major opposition party Civic United Front (CUF) got 13 seats and the Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) took 4 seats.

    CCM's candidate for the presidency of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, added 43 more victories in constituencies to his tally which now totaled at 125 constituencies.

    Ibrahim Lipumba, who is vying for the union presidency on the CUF ticket, were so far returned victorious in 11 constituencies, all in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar where his party takes its stronghold.

    None of the remaining eight union presidential aspirants, representing eight other political parties in the country, has so far posed any serious threat to the stranglehold of CCM and CUF inthe race toward the State House.

    Local pundits were somewhat surprised by the strong show by CCMas quite a few of them predicted that the opposition parties were expected to bite as much as one third of the elected parliamentaryseats away from the ruling party.

    So far, however, all the opposition parties combined to accountfor less than 16 percent of the elected seats of the National Assembly that is scheduled to start its new session on December 29.

    Ten of Tanzania's 18 fully-registered political parties are vying for a total of 232 elected parliamentary seats from as many constituencies apart from the presidency of the united republic.

    This year's general elections, held on Wednesday after being postponed from Oct. 30, were the third multi-party polls since 1995 after Tanzania had shifted to multi-party politics in 1992. Enditem