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Talks between Zimbabwe's rival parties deadlocked

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-29 10:00

JOHANNESBURG  -- The talks between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to solve Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis have broken down, agencies reported Monday.

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The negotiators are deadlocked over who will lead a possible unity government, according to the reports, quoting anonymous sources close to the talks held in an undisclosed place in South Africa's administrative capital Pretoria.

The MDC insists that its bigger faction's leader Morgan Tsvangirai be the leader of any unity government because he won a leading number of votes in Zimbabwe's first round of presidential voting, though failing to obtain an absolute majority, according to the reports.

However, ZANU-PF is firm in rejecting any deal that fails to recognize its leader Robert Mugabe's victory in the run-off, which was boycotted by Tsvangirai, who cited various reasons, mainly political violence against his supporters.

The two factions of the MDC won a majority of seats in parliament in the legislative elections held simultaneously with the presidential polls on March 29, the first time that the ZANU-PF lost its majority in the parliament since the country's independence in 1980.

Mugabe has not appointed a new cabinet or sworn in a new parliament.

The talks, which are not open to media, formally started Thursday, after ZANU-PF and the two factions of the MDC signed on July 21 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the framework for discussions.

The MoU envisaged that "the dialogue will be completed within a period of two weeks from the date of signing of this MoU."

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who was entrusted by the 14-member Southern African Development Community last March to mediate between Zimbabwe's rival parties, oversaw the signing of the MoU.