Mugabe's party set to govern without MDC

Published on Saturday 20 December 2008 18:38

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is expected to get the green light from his Zanu-PF party to form a government in the next week with or without the opposition, party officials said.

Such a move would likely finish off a fragile power-sharing pact which has been deadlocked for months while the parties fight over control of key Cabinet posts.

Analysts had seen the pact as the best hope for averting total collapse in Zimbabwe, where hyper-inflation means prices double every day and a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people.

Mugabe said on Friday he had invited Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to be sworn in as prime minister in a shared government under the September 15 pact.

But Tsvangirai's MDC said it had not received an invitation, and the leader said talks on a unity government could collapse over abductions of MDC supporters, which he blamed on Mugabe's party.

Zanu-PF officials said it would end its annual conference this weekend with a resolution urging Mugabe to form a government.