Africa News
Zimbabwe's MDC says fresh elections needed to break impasse
Feb 12, 2010, 18:08 GMT
Harare - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Friday that fresh elections were the only solution to the current impasse it was facing with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.
'Zanu-PF are trying to employ the tool of delaying so that we continue to talk about talks until Christmas. We need to put a full- stop to negotiations,' said Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesman, at a press briefing in Harare.
'We realise there is disenchantment among the people. The people would want to see finality to these issues.' Chamisa added. 'If the deadlock persists then our trajectory is to have free and fair elections.'
Since the formation of a coalition government in February 2009, Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe of refusing to appoint MDC officials to senior government posts.
Elections are due in 2011.
South African President Jacob Zuma, who was appointed by the Southern African Development Community to mediate in Zimbabwe's talks, last week sent his team to Harare. But their intervention could not apparently break the impasse between Zanu-PF and MDC.
Tsvangirai is demanding that Roy Bennett, his choice for junior agriculture minister, be sworn in. But Mugabe has refused saying the white former farmer must first be cleared of the terrorism charges he is currently facing.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Africa
- 1. Several dead in car bombing in northern Nigeria
- 2. Mogadishu blast kills seven, including sports chiefs
- 3. Seven dead in Mogadishu suicide bomb attack
- 4. ANC suspends Youth League leader with immediate effect
- 5. Police arrest Uganda's opposition leader and others at protest march
Older Talkback
