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Tsvangirai asked to Mugabe bash
29/06/2008 15:34 - (SA)
Harare - President Robert Mugabe invited
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to his inauguration on
Sunday after a widely condemned election which African observers
said was unfair and scarred by violence and intimidation.
Tsvangirai immediately rejected the invitation, saying the
inauguration was meaningless after an illegitimate poll. He said
he would ask the African Union not to recognise Mugabe's
re-election.
Mugabe's spokesperson, George Charamba, told Reuters the
invitation was "done in the spirit of the president's wish to
reach out...It is a major step towards political engagement".
The veteran Zimbabwean leader is under heavy pressure from
within Africa to enter talks with Tsvangirai over the country's
political and economic crisis.
"Well, you know that the whole inauguration is meaningless
as far as I'm concerned, so I can't give support to an exercise
I'm totally opposed to... the whole world has condemned it, the
Zimbabwean people will not give this exercise legitimacy and
support," Tsvangirai told Reuters.
He said the opposition was committed to African Union
sponsored talks with Mugabe's government although no
negotiations had started.
Analysts said before Friday's vote that Mugabe had defied a
chorus of calls to call off the one-candidate election so that
he could negotiate with Tsvangirai from a position of strength. Rerun poll - PAP
Pan-African Parliament observers, one of the few groups able
to monitor the ballot, said the vote on Friday was so flawed it
should be rerun.
Results have not been released, but Mugabe said he was
heading for victory in the poll, dismissed as a sham by much of
the world.
The government said Mugabe's swearing-in for a new five-year
term would be held at 15:00 (13:00 GMT).
The inauguration would allow Mugabe to extend his 28 years
of unbroken rule before attending an African Union summit in
Egypt on Monday where he has vowed to confront his critics.
Mugabe was the only candidate after Movement for Democratic
Change leader Tsvangirai withdrew because of government-backed
violence which he said had killed nearly 90 of his supporters.
"These elections were not free and fair," said Marwick
Khumalo, head of the Pan-African parliament observer team.
"Conditions should be put in place for the holding of free,
fair and credible elections as soon as possible."
- Reuters
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