Mugabe signs pact with minority MDC faction: Report
August 13th, 2008 - 6:32 am ICT by IANSDPA
Harare, Aug 13 (DPA) Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party Tuesday agreed on a deal to share power with a breakaway faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in a move aimed at sidelining MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, media reports and sources said. The deal was clinched after Tsvangirai refused Mugabe’s terms for a government of national unity after three days of talks in Harare, mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, the BBC and al-Jazeera broadcasters said quoting unconfirmed reports.
A senior Zanu-PF source told DPA that the party was going ahead without MDC after Tsvangirai had refused to sign a powersharing deal proposed by Zanu-PF.
The breakaway MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, which was the third party to the talks, fielded its own candidates in recent elections and holds the balance of power in parliament.
Tsvangirai walked out of talks earlier with Mugabe and Mutambara. His party insisted, however, the talks had not collapsed. Mbeki continued to broker talks between negotiators from Zanu-PF and Mutambara’s MDC faction hours after he left Harare.
DPA
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