ZIMBABWE’s ruling party officials called off talks with the opposition over disputed presidential elections, saying there was nothing to discuss as long as the opposition was challenging the vote in court, the state Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, representing the government in the talks, asked Nigerian and South African mediators to delay Monday’s scheduled meeting aimed at resolving Zimbabwe’s political stalemate since elections in March, the newspaper reported.
Ruling party officials, at a meeting on Thursday, decided to cancel the talks while the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was challenging the election results to the Harare High Court.
Chinamasa said his delegation ”believed no useful purpose would be achieved by continuing with the dialogue pending the court action,” The Herald reported.
The opposition had also taken a combative stand by setting conditions for the talks and publicising them in ”inflammatory newspaper advertisements,” Chinamasa said.
The talks were convened by Kgalema Motlanthe, secretary general of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, and veteran Nigerian diplomat Adebayo Adedeji in a bid by Africa’s two most powerful nations to resolve Zimbabwe’s political stand off.
The opposition has vowed not to drop its call for a replay of the March 9-11 election in which Mugabe was declared the winner.
Opposition officials demand a new election held under international supervision within six months to a year.
Mugabe has refused to consider new elections and hopes for making headway in the talks were dim from the outset. Several independent observer groups criticized the elections as deeply flawed. The United States condemned the vote and the Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies suspended Zimbabwe for a year.
Official results showed opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai losing by some 400 000 votes to Mugabe’s. Tsvangirai has refused to accept the tally, saying it was rigged and tainted by political violence.
Tsvangirai has also demanded an immediate end to state-orchestrated reprisals against his supporters and has ruled out mediators’ calls for him to join a national unity government.
Mugabe (78) led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 and has vowed to crush any protests against his victory. He ruled virtually unchallenged until the economy collapsed and political violence erupted two years ago.
This year, political violence has claimed at least 56 lives, most of them opposition supporters, according to local human rights groups.
Since the election, hundreds more have suffered assaults, death threats, torture and evictions from their homes, mostly at the hands of ruling party militants since the poll. – Sapa-AP