Zimbabwe's presidential rivals set to attend talks on crisis

Published on Thursday 10 April 2008 22:12

ROBERT Mugabe, the embattled Zimbabwean president, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will attend an emergency summit of southern African leaders to present their conflicting views of the crisis paralysing their country, it emerged last night.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims Mr Tsvangirai won the 29 March vote outright, and has accused Mr Mugabe of delaying the results so he can orchestrate a run-off vote and give militants from his Zanu-PF party time to intimidate voters and ensure he wins a second election.

Yesterday,the MDC leadership resolved not to participate in any run-off presidential vote. Party leaders previously said they would not accept a second round of voting.

Bright Matonga, Zimbabwe's deputy information minister, said opposition politicians would be "cowards" if they did not contest a run-off, adding that they should "should face the music".

With no resolution to the crisis in sight, Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president, called the emergency summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for tomorrow.

Mr Matonga confirmed Mr Mugabe would be at the meeting. However, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Zimbabwean information minister, said the meeting was unnecessary as

"there is no crisis in Zimbabwe that warrants it".

Meanwhile, Nqobizitha Mlilo, a spokesman for the MDC, said Mr Tsvangirai would also attend, adding that his election win made him a "head of state".

And Tendai Biti, the MDC's general-secretary, said the party would press the SADC to urge Mr Mugabe to step down.

Official results from the presidential vote have not been released, 12 days after the election. The High Court will rule on Monday on an opposition request for their release, MDC and elections commission lawyers said.