HARARE, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President and ruling Zano-PF candidate Robert Mugabe has won a landslide victory in the presidential run-off election, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced on Sunday.

    The ZEC said official results showed that Mugabe won all 10 of the country's provinces.

    Mugabe, 84, won 85.5 percent of the votes in the election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's 9.3 percent, defeating Tsvangirai by a huge margin, the ZEC said.

    Chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramyi said Mugabe had won a total of 2,150,269 votes against 233,000 for Tsvangirai, who boycotted the election but whose name still appeared on ballot papers.

    "I therefore declare the said Mugabe, Robert Gabriel, the duly elected president of the republic of Zimbabwe," Sekeramyi said.

    The turnout was announced at 42.37 percent, and 131,481 ballot papers were rejected.

    Zimbabwe held the presidential run-off election on Friday as scheduled despite opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the race.

    Tsvangirai withdrew from the election on last Sunday, citing various reasons, including political violence.

    But the ZEC said the withdrawal was of no legal effect because it was filed too late.

    Tsvangirai received 47.9 percent of the votes in the first round of election held on March 29, followed by President Robert Mugabe's 43.2 percent.

    An outright winner needs to obtain an absolute majority of the votes, otherwise a run-off needs to be held, according to Zimbabwe's law.

    Tsvangirai, who in 1999 founded the Movement for Democratic Changes (MDC), is taking refuge in the Dutch embassy, saying he feared for his safety.

    Incumbent President Mugabe, 84, who has been the head of state since the southern African country gained independence in 1980, accused Tsvangirai of being a puppet used by Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler Britain and its allies, who Mugabe said are angered by Zimbabwe's land reform program..

    The run-off was held as Zimbabwe is facing serious economic challenges including a 2 million percent inflation and shortage of basic goods including bread.

    Observers from many countries and organizations, including the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)monitored the election. SADC alone had more than 400 election observers in the country.