FACTBOX - Zimbabwe's new parliament speaker

Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:24pm BST

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(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Monday won the vote for parliament speaker, dealing a blow to President Robert Mugabe in a post-election power struggle.

The Movement for Democratic Change's Lovemore Moyo, 43, takes one of the most powerful positions in Zimbabwean politics.

Here are some details about Moyo:

* He was national chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change and won 110 votes in the 210-member assembly, beating a candidate from a breakaway opposition faction.

* Moyo was born in 1965. At the age of 12, he left the rural district of Matobo in Matabeleland for Zambia to help liberate Rhodesia from white minority rule.

* He stayed in Zambia for several years and whilst there, received military training for one of the liberation movements, ZAPU. The group was led by Joshua Nkomo, a rival of Mugabe.

* Moyo became a legislator for Matobo North, in a stronghold of the opposition, in 2000.

* During election campaigning in June, Moyo was detained by police with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai for several hours.