Zimbabwe's opposition party to be absent from summit in Swaziland
www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-20 17:27:11   Print

    NAIROBI, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's opposition party MDC-T said Monday in Johannesburg that it will not attend a summit due to be held in Swaziland Monday to seek a breakthrough in Zimbabwe's deadlock over allocation of ministries, agencies reported.

    The party's chief negotiator Tendai Biti was quoted as saying at a press conference that the party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai was not going to the meeting of the security committee of the Southern African Development Community because he was denied a passport.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (centre L) greets South Africa President Kgalema Motlanthe as they arrive for the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional group in Mbabane Oct. 20, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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    Zimbabwe's rival parties signed a landmark power-sharing deal on Sept. 15 aimed to end the country's political impasse, which has worsened the country's economic crisis.

    Under the deal, the parties should form a cabinet of 31 ministries, of which 15 go to the ZANU-PF led by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, 13 to the Movement for Democratic Change led by Tsvangirai (MDC-T), and three to the breakaway wing of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara.

    The parties have been negotiating on which party controls which ministries.

    Their talks reached a deadlock last Friday after four days of negotiations mediated by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

    The discussions stalled on the allocation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which controls the police, according to Zimbabwe's state-owned The Herald newspaper.

    Mugabe arrived in Swaziland Sunday evening, to be joined by the presidents of Swaziland, Angola and Mozambique, members of the security committee of the SADC.

    Zimbabwe's political impasse came after the elections in March, in which the combined opposition won a majority of seats in parliament and Tsvangirai won a narrowly leading number of votes in the first round of presidential election but not enough to avoid a run-off.

    Mugabe won the presidential run-off held on June 27 as sole candidate. But Tsvangirai, who boycotted the run-off citing political violence, refused to acknowledge Mugabe's victory.

Editor: Yan
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