Zimbabwe ? Zimbabwe’s main opposition party won the key post of parliament speaker Monday, dealing a blow to President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party while negotiations are stalled over who will rule the country.

Lovemore Moyo, the national chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change, won the post with 110 votes in the 210-member body. It was the first time Mugabe’s party has lost control of the position, among the most powerful in Zimbabwe, since independence in 1980.

Opposition lawmakers broke into song after their win, which came despite the arrests of two MDC members of parliament Monday morning, in what analysts said was likely an attempt to cut the opposition’s vote. One of the two was released in time to vote, but the whereabouts of the other are unknown, opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

Despite the government’s bloody crackdown on the opposition before the March elections, the MDC won a 100-seat majority in the parliament. Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, won 99 seats. A breakaway opposition party holds 10 seats, and there is one independent.