Zim: African leaders to step in?
03/04/2008 19:10  - (SA)  

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Harare - Despite the bloody nose given to Zanu-PF in Saturday's parliamentary elections, the party of long-time Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe appeared ready on Thursday to soldier on in its increasingly desperate bid to cling to power.

"President Mugabe is going to fight to the last," Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told the BBC, denting but not entirely quashing hopes that 84-year-old Mugabe would finally call it a day.

Meanwhile, there were the first public signs of African diplomats' efforts to mediate between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai when Sierra Leone's former president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah revealed he had met with both men.

Although the results of the presidential election have yet to be released, Matonga predicted Mugabe would square off against Tsvangirai in a runoff - as called if neither candidate takes more than 50% of votes.

'We'll be ready'

"This time we will be ready," Matonga vowed, as Mugabe made his first public appearance since the elections, looking, by all accounts, relaxed.

But according to several sources, the MDC and Zanu-PF are engaged in furious behind-the-scenes horse-trading.

The slow release of the results and the talk of a runoff could be part of a ploy to buy more time for the talks, in which neighbouring African countries are believed to have a hand.

Mugabe appeared on national TV, not as was feverishly predicted two days ago to announce he was finally relinquishing power, but to bid farewell to a group of African Union election observers.

Five days after Zimbabwe's combined presidential, parliamentary and local elections the country is convulsed by one question: will the "old man" who has ruled the country for all of its 28- year post-independence history fight another day or will he finally go?

The initial silence emanating from State House after the opposition claimed victory early in the elections was interpreted as a positive sign. "He's floored by his bad showing," members of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change trumpeted, claiming a 67% victory. "He doesn't know what to do."

The MDC, who claim Tsvangirai won the presidential vote outright with 50.3% of the vote, had begged Mugabe to save himself the "humiliation" of a runoff, which must be held within three weeks if neither candidate takes more than 50% plus one ballot.

Bloodshed

Analysts fear bloodshed in what would be seen as a do-or-die contest by both sides. Matonga vowed Zanu-PF would throw everything it had at a second round, raising fears of a return to the police brutality against opposition supporters that has marked election campaigns in the past.

"It will be very violent," Mbembe said.

Among the possible other outcomes of the talks that have been floated are the formation of a transitional unity government.

A meeting of Zanu-PF's politburo (inner circle) scheduled for Friday is also expected to give a clearer indication of whether Mugabe will make his last stand or as, Tutu hopes, "step down with dignity, gracefully." - Sapa-dpa

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