Zimbabwe’s major opposition party has revealed that the two days of power-sharing talks with the ruling Zanu-PF have ended without any agreement.
President Robert Mugabe wanted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to become a ceremonial prime minister without real authority, which according to Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa was ‘unacceptable’
The MDC said its negotiating teams had returned from South Africa on Sunday without having achieved a breakthrough in the talks on Zimbabwe’s political crisis. ‘Nothing was achieved in the latest round of engagement in South Africa to break the deadlock. We remain where we were,’ Mr Nelson Chamisa said.
Both sides in the negotiations have agreed that there should be a national unity government, where Mr Mugabe would be president and Mr Tsvangirai prime minister. But the MDC has insisted that the president should cede real executive power to Mr Tsvangirai and stay in office only as a ceremonial head of state.
Mr Mugabe last week threatened to form a new government without the MDC, after being booed and jeered by opposition MPs at the formal opening of parliament. He would only accept Tsvangirai as a ceremonial prime minister but the MDC would not accept the current offer from Zanu-PF for the opposition leader.
Mr Tsvangirai had won the first round of the presidential election before pulling out of the run-off in June 2008 citing a campaign of violence against his supporters.
