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Mugabe vows early elections if unity government fails

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Agence France-Presse | 12/05/2008 7:55 PM

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HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe brandished the threat of fresh elections in a bid to force through a stalled power-sharing deal as the United States called for him on Friday to quit.

As a cholera epidemic in the crisis-wracked country worsened, a defiant Mugabe lashed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for refusing to join a unity government in which he would remain as president.

Neighbouring South Africa meanwhile said it was time end to end "political point-scoring" while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said negotiations being conducted by Mugabe with the MDC were a "sham" and he should stand down.

In an address on Thursday night, Mugabe showed he was in no mood to bow to MDC demands to hand over control of the key interior ministry, saying he would call early elections if the two sides could not work together.

"We agreed to give them (the MDC) 13 ministries while we share the ministry of home affairs, but if the arrangement fails to work in the next one-and-a-half to two years, then we would go for elections," Mugabe was quoted as saying by The Herald, a government newspaper.

Zimbabwe has been in political limbo since elections in March when the opposition wrested control of parliament from Mugabe's party and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pushed Mugabe into second place in a presidential poll.

But Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off poll in June after dozens of his supporters were killed in attacks blamed on Mugabe supporters.

The two rivals signed an agreement in September to share power, but it has yet to be implemented after fierce disagreements over who should control key ministries.

Tsvangirai says he wants to join a unity government but Mugabe must give up the interior ministry after keeping hold of the defence ministry.

In comments made to his ZANU-PF party's politburo and reported by The Herald, Mugabe accused the MDC of trying to destroy the power-sharing agreement.

"The MDC should say no if they do not want to be part of the inclusive government," said Mugabe, 84, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980.

While Tsvangirai and Mugabe at loggerheads, the country has been steadily collapsing amid an inflation rate last put at 231 million percent.

With the government now unable to afford the chemicals needed to ensure a clean water supply, a cholera epidemic has swept across the country and even crossed the border into South Africa.

In its latest bulletin, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the outbreak had now claimed 575 lives. The capital Harare is the worst-hit district with 179 deaths and 6,448 cases as of December 4.

South Africa, whose former president Thabo Mbeki has been trying to mediate between ZANU-PF and the MDC, said it was sending a high-level delegation to Zimbabwe to assess how it can provide assistance.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko said the crisis had reached such levels that "the time for political point scoring is over."

"I would be extremely surprised if the outbreak of cholera, the death of innocent Zimbabweans as a result of a failure of politicans to reach an agreement does not spur them to more urgent action."

South Africa has expressed confidence a draft amendment to the constitution paving the way toward a new government will be signed in a matter of days.

Speaking on a brief trip to Copenhagen, Rice said southern African states needed to maintain pressure on Mugabe to find a political solution.

"It is well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave," she said. "I think that is now obvious."

Her comments brought an angry riposte from Harare, which said it was not for Washington to pronounce on another country's president.

"Zimbabwe is a sovereign state and cannot be dictated to by some secretary of state of another country no matter how big," Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, told AFP.

Despite being harshly critical of Mugabe's government, the former colonial power Britain has announced a 10-million-pound (14.7-million-dollar, 11.5-million-euro) emergency aid package.

The US also said it was providing 600,000 dollars to help fight the cholera outbreak while the International Committee of the Red Cross said over 13 tonnes of medical supplies has arrived in Harare.