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MDC: Vote killed chance of deal
01/07/2008 18:01 - (SA)
Harare - Robert Mugabe's holding of a one-man election has killed off any prospect of a negotiated political settlement in Zimbabwe, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's number two leader said on Tuesday.
"While the MDC has pursued dialogue in a bid to establish a government of national healing before June 12, the sham election on June 27, 2008, totally and completely exterminated any prospect of a negotiated settlement," the party's secretary-general Tendai Biti and chief negotiator said.
Biti, who is currently on bail on treason charges, said suggestions that the MDC had been holding talks with Mugabe's Zanu-PF and were on the verge of agreeing to form a national union government were false.
"There are recent widespread reports that Zanu-PF and MDC are talking and are about to conclude an agreement to form a government of national unity. Nothing could be as malicious and as further from the truth.
"As a matter of fact there are no talks or discussions taking place between the two parties and most importantly, there is no agreement in the offing."
Zanu-PF 'not ready for dialogue'
Speaking to AFP, Biti described the vote as "an exercise in madness".
"It showed us we were dealing with people who were not ready for dialogue. Before June 27 you could say everyone was a loser because they could argue they did not win the March election so it was a give and take exercise.
"Now we have made it clear that June 27 would lock the arteries of dialogue."
Asked if that meant there could be no further dialogue, he replied: "Dialogue to achieve what?"
Mugabe, leader of the former British colony since 1980, was sworn in for a new five-year term as president on Sunday after going ahead with a run-off ballot despite the withdrawal of MDC leader and first round winner Morgan Tsvangirai.
Biti was arrested on treason charges on June 12 as he stepped off a plane at Harare airport.
Tsvangirai hopes for talks
His comments seem to contradict recent statements from Tsvangirai who indicated in newspaper interviews at the weekend that he wanted to hold talks with Mugabe and even held out the possibility of the veteran leader remaining as a ceremonial head of state under a rewritten constitution.
At his inauguration on Sunday, Mugabe put out feelers to the MDC by saying he wanted to hold a dialogue which could "minimise our differences and enhance the area of unity and cooperation".
The MDC's chief spokesperson Nelson Chamisa reacted warily by saying it was hard to reconcile his comments with the violence on the ground but nevertheless said a negotiated settlement that leads to free and fair elections is "our only exit out of the crisis".
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
