Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday time may be running out to organise free and fair elections next March.
The Zimbabwe government and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change are holding talks in South Africa seeking to solve the political crisis that reached new heights earlier this year with the arrest and beating of pro-democracy leaders.
Tsvangirai wants the talks to lay the groundwork for next year’s elections.
”The focus of these negotiations is on the forthcoming elections in March,” he told Associated Press Television News.
”So we are bit anxious what needs to be done to create the conditions for free and fair elections,” said Tsvangirai, who is on a tour of European capitals. ”We may actually be running out [of time] for it.”
Zimbabwe has presidential elections scheduled for next year and there are moves to advance the parliamentary elections by two years from 2010 so they coincide.
President Robert Mugabe is still the official candidate, although there are repeated rumours he is under pressure to stand down.
The opposition maintains intimidation of voters and ballot-rigging have robbed it of victory in parliamentary and presidential elections in the past — warning that polls scheduled for next year will be no different.
It also wants the repeal of sweeping media and security laws, electoral reforms and an end to state-orchestrated political violence. — Sapa-AP