(CNN) -- Zimbabwe officials on Saturday began recounting ballots from the country's disputed election in a move that could overturn a claimed victory by opponents to President Robert Mugabe.
Robert Mugabe delivers his speech at the 28th Independence Celebrations in Harare.
The electoral commission began recounting parliamentary and presidential ballots in 23 of Zimbabwe's 210 voting districts Saturday morning, officials said.
The country's High Court cleared the way for the partial recount Friday when it rejected a petition by the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC argued the recount would be illegal since the initial presidential results were never announced.
The delayed presidential election results have raised fears that Mugabe, who has been in office for 28 years, is trying to cling to power.
MDC presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has declared himself the winner over Mugabe, based on vote tallies posted outside precincts.
The electoral commission had already announced the MDC won the majority of the parliamentary seats in the March 29 election.
However, Mugabe's party, ZANU-PF, has vowed to contest 16 seats in that race, and it says there was cheating. It isn't clear whether those seats are among the constituencies to be recounted.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said the recount would take five days.
Meanwhole, a Chinese ship loaded with arms and ammunition bound for Zimbabwe has turned away from a South African port after dockworkers refused to handle the cargo, their representative said.
The An Yue Jiang sat anchored outside Durban's harbor in South Africa on Thursday. The ship was "probably going to the nearest port, which is Maputo, Mozambique, from where it could also be transshipped to Zimbabwe," David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation, told CNN International on Friday. E-mail to a friend
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All About Zimbabwe • Robert Mugabe • Morgan Tsvangirai
Zimbabwe election officials have today begun to recount 23 out of 210 constituencies' ballots after president Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party accused the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), of bribing election officials. Several arrests have since been made in relation to the recount.


The ballots are from the parliamentary elections held on March 29. The opposing MDC made an appeal to Harare's High Court for the recount to be stopped. However it was rejected, Justice Antonia Guvava saying "I find no merit in the application... Accordingly, the application is dismissed with costs." Despite this MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is currently staying in South Africa for his own safety, claims to have won both parliamentary and presidential elections outright.

Opponents of Mugabe's regime have accused him of being biased and are certain that he will cheat. "Clearly these guys have tampered with the boxes. They can't deny that," the MDC's spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. "How do you expect us to have confidence in the process?". 

British prime minister Gordon Brown also criticised Mugabe, claiming before the United Nations Security Council in New York on Wednesday that "no one thinks" he won the election. Mr. Mugabe needs 9 of the 23 recounted ballots to be in his party's favour to retain a parliamentary majority. 

"The vote recounting process has started, and it's going to be a thorough exercise. We expect it to take about three days," a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission official told Reuters earlier today. A team from the international Southern African Development Community as well as various diplomats are observing the recounts.

This recount comes after a chain of controversies in Zimbabwe including arms deals with China, suspected violent intimidation of opposition and denunciation of international opponents.