Zimbabwe's opposition took an early lead in parliamentary elections with almost a quarter of results declared on Friday, but the first returns were mostly from its traditional urban strongholds. Results from the rural bastions of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF were trickling in more slowly but were expected to swing the vote back towards the government, widely tipped to win Thursday's poll. Early results showed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was ahead with 26 seats, against ZANU-PF's three.Most of the declared results were for the capital Harare and other cities where the labor union-based MDC has strong support among urban workers. CNN's Jeff Koinange said: "In urban areas -- the capital Harare, the second-biggest city, Bulawayo -- this is where voters normally vote for the opposition. "There seems to be a trend. But the key is whether the MDC has been able to penetrate rural areas. That we don't know. Traditionally, the deeper you go into the countryside, the more they are aligned with the ruling party. But it could change, it's early days." Western countries and the opposition have already declared the electoral process as unfairly tilted in favor of ZANU-PF.