BBC News.
Sunday, 31 August 2008 12:49 UK
Zimbabwe talks 'end without deal'
Zimbabwe's main opposition party has said two days of power-sharing
talks with the ruling Zanu-PF have ended without agreement.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told the
BBC the balance of power was in dispute.
He said President Robert Mugabe wanted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to
become a titular prime minister without real authority, which was
"unacceptable".
Mr Mugabe last week threatened to form a new government without the
MDC.
"The MDC does not want to come in apparently," he said on Wednesday, a
day after being booed and jeered by opposition MPs at the formal
opening of parliament.
Following legislative elections in March, Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF lost its
majority in the House of Assembly for the first time since independence
in 1980.
Mr Tsvangirai also won the first round of the presidential election
that month, before pulling out of the run-off in June citing a campaign
of violence against his sup****ters.
MDC 'insolent'
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 Chamisa told the
Reuters news agency.
Mr Chamisa later told the BBC that the MDC would not accept the current
offer from Zanu-PF for the opposition leader to be only a titular prime
minister.
Correspondents say both sides in the negotiations have agreed that
there should be a national unity government, that Mr Mugabe should 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.
Earlier, the state-owned Herald newspaper re****ted that the MDC had
also proposed that the two leaders chair the cabinet jointly.
"The Zanu-PF dismissed the suggestion, not just as insolent, but also
stunning ignorance on how government works," it quoted a government
source as saying.
Meanwhile, Mr Chamisa welcomed the government's decision to lift the
ban on aid agencies involved in providing food and other forms of
assistance. He said the restriction had been an act of madness.
The government had accused some of the agencies of siding with the
opposition in the run-up to the presidential election's second round.
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