Zimbabwe's opposition rejects power sharing

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader drew new political battle lines today in a showdown to oust embattled President Robert Mugabe, announcing he would not be part of any power-sharing government with the ruling party.

Morgan Tsvangirai, hardening the stand of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said if Mugabe was to leave office, the ruling party should be left to run the country for 90 days before new presidential elections were held.

The proposal for a power-sharing agreement had been raised over the last few months by various intermediaries.

Mugabe, 79, has been under mounting pressure, even among long-time supporters, to retire as the nation faces its worst economic crisis since he became its first black leader after the southern African country won independence in 1980.

Tsvangirai said the nation’s constitution clearly provided for an acting president, most likely from the ruling party, to take over for three months ahead of fresh elections once the incumbent vacated office, he said.

He told a meeting of diplomats representing the Group of Eight countries that his party wanted dialogue with Mugabe but, “will not be part of any negotiation process which simply seeks to incorporate us as junior partners into the structures of illegitimate power dominated by Mugabe and his cronies.”

Such a power-sharing arrangement, he said, “will only serve to expand that illegitimacy and ultimately sanitise the Mugabe regime.”

The opposition’s rejection of a possible future power-sharing deal followed their call for the people of Zimbabwe to partake in a new round of anti-government demonstrations scheduled to begin next week.

Tsvangirai told supporters in Harare that “democracy marches” were being planned throughout the country and urged them to “prepare for the final push” against Mugabe and his government.

Demonstrations without police approval are illegal under Zimbabwe’s stringent security laws.

The opposition, emboldened by anger and discontent in the collapsing economy, has said it would ask people to take to the streets in an effort to outmanoeuvre police and troops who in the past have sealed off highways and approaches to urban opposition strongholds to stymie protests.

The government, meanwhile, said it put in place what it called adequate security measures for the protests.

“We are ready to crush any demonstration which will lead to the destruction of property or the threat to national security,” said Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi.

Ruling party militants and veterans of the guerrilla war that led to independence have also vowed to crush any anti-government street protests.

Independent human rights groups say ruling party militants have spearheaded violence during three years of political unrest in the country.

The opposition, Britain, the former colonial power, the European Union, the United States and other independent observer groups rejected the results Mugabe’s re-election last year as fraudulent and swayed by political intimidation and vote rigging.