Zimbabwe’s opposition is under intense political and violent pressure to agree to call off a second round of presidential elections in a fortnight and join a coalition government that keeps President Robert Mugabe in power.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, won the first round of elections in March but narrowly failed to win an outright majority. He has rejected any deal that leaves Mugabe in office, and says there can be no agreement on power-sharing before a run-off vote.
But there is concern among some opposition politicians that, if the MDC insists on taking power, the government will use escalating state-sponsored violence as a pretext to call off the polls at the last minute and impose emergency rule.
South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda, and Mugabe’s former finance minister, Simba Makoni, are pressuring Tsvangirai to accept a deal modelled on the recent post-election ”African solution” in Kenya. This would see Mugabe remain as president but Tsvangirai become prime minister. However, the MDC regards Kenya as a bad example because the opposition victory was overturned through violence.
Makoni said that he has been acting as an informal mediator between the MDC and Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, along with Mbeki, to press the opposition to agree to a transitional government, because of rising violence. ”In the current situation, there is no hope that a free and fair election can be undertaken,” Makoni said.
Kaunda has added to the pressure on Tsvangirai with a public call for him to accept the post of prime minister under a Mugabe presidency. ”The authority between president and prime minister must be fairly shared,” Kaunda said.
The MDC replied that, as it is Mugabe who has created the violence and political instability, it would be perverse to reward him by allowing him to remain president — when Tsvangirai should serve as the country’s leader during any transitional government, because he won the first round of voting.
Tsvangirai said that while the MDC is prepared to accept Zanu-PF into a power-sharing government, Mugabe has to go and his party must be in a minority. ”The Kenyan model of a government of national unity is not an option because … our circumstances are different. The people’s choice must be respected,” he said.
But there is fear among some of Mugabe’s opponents that he will use the violence as a pretext to claim there is too much instability to hold a vote.
The state-run press has laid the groundwork with an attempt to blame the victims by portraying the MDC as responsible for the campaign of beatings and killings, which the opposition says has left at least 60 dead and about 200 missing.
More than 3 000 people have been treated in hospital after severe beatings, and tens of thousands have been forced from their homes, as a result of the violence across Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai said the campaign had been devastating: ”The structure of our party has been decimated and our polling agents remain prime targets.”
On Wednesday, Mbeki described the violence as a ”serious concern” that needs to be addressed by regional leaders. The South African president has angered the MDC by declining to specifically identify the government as instigating the attacks. —