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.
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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) Photo
Gallery>>> |
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.