9:34am UK, Tuesday July 29, 2008

Negotiations between Robert Mugabe’s party and the Zimbabwe opposition to end the political crisis have ended in deadlock.

Robert Mugabe is said to have offered Morgan Tsvangiari the vice-presidency

The opposition MDC has said that the only offer forthcoming from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF was that Morgan Tsvangirai should be made vice-president – with no executive powers.

An MDC official told the Reuters news agency: “The talks have reached a deadlock and cannot be moved forward.

“Apparently, the Zanu-PF negotiators were only mandated to negotiate around the vice presidency and nothing else.”

Senior negotiators from the two parties started the talks last Thursday, with the objective of finding a solution to Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis, including the possibility of forming a unity government.

They followed preliminary talks that started on Tuesday after Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a deal on the framework for discussions to end the deadlock over Mugabe’s re-election on June 27 in a poll boycotted by the opposition because of violence.

The MDC official said the opposition was unwilling to accept a deal for the post of vice-president for Tsvangirai, who won the initial March 29 election but failed to get enough votes to avoid a run-off vote.

The official said: “The MDC is the largest party in parliament and all they could offer was the vice-presidency?

Mugabe and Tsvangirai shake hands

“Obviously, the MDC’s position is that that’s not acceptable.”

Tsvangirai spokesman George Sibotshiwe said the MDC chief had travelled to South Africa on Monday, but was on “private business” and would not meet with his negotiators.

But MDC sources said Tsvangirai would meet the negotiators, before proceeding to a meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community meeting on politics, defence and security in Angola on Wednesday.

Tsvangirai’s MDC insists that he be the leader of any unity government because he won the first round of voting.

Zanu-PF, however, has said it will not accept any deal that fails to recognise Mugabe’s re-election or seeks to reverse his land redistribution programme, which has seen the government seize thousands of white-owned farms beginning in 2000.

The parties also disagree over how long a national unity government should remain in power.

The MDC wants fresh elections held as soon as possible, while Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980, wants to carry on with his new five-year mandate.