ZIMBABWE:ZIMBABWE'S OPPOSITION is under intense political and violent pressure to agree to call off a second round of presidential elections in a fortnight and join a coalition government that keeps President Robert Mugabe in power.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, who won the first round of elections in March but failed to win an outright majority, has rejected any deal that leaves Mr Mugabe in office and said there can be no agreement on powersharing before the run-off vote.
But there is concern among some opposition politicians that if the MDC insists on taking power the government will use the escalating state-sponsored violence as a pretext to postpone elections and impose emergency rule.
South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki, former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda and Mr Mugabe's former finance minister Simba Makoni, are pressing Mr Tsvangirai to accept a deal modelled on the recent post-election "African solution" in Kenya that would see Mr Mugabe remain as president and Mr Tsvangirai become prime minister. But the MDC regards Kenya as a bad example because the opposition victory was overturned through violence.
Mr Makoni said he has been acting as an informal mediator between the MDC and Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF, along with Mr Mbeki, to press the opposition to agree to a transitional government because of rising violence. "In the current situation, there is no hope that a free and fair election can be undertaken," Mr Makoni said.
Mr Kaunda has added to the pressure on Mr Tsvangirai with a public call for him to accept the post of prime minister under a Mugabe presidency.
But the MDC said that as it was Mr Mugabe who had created the violence and consequent political instability it would be perverse to reward him by allowing him to remain president when Mr Tsvangirai should serve as the country's leader during any transitional government because he won the first round of voting.
Mr Tsvangirai said that while the MDC would accept Zanu-PF into a powersharing government, Mr Mugabe had to go and his party must be in a minority. "The Kenyan model of a government of national unity is not an option . . . our circumstances are different. The people's choice must be respected," he said.
But fear exists among Mr Mugabe's opponents that he will use the violence as a pretext to claim there is too much instability to hold a vote.
The state-run press has laid the groundwork with an attempt to blame the victims by portraying the MDC as responsible for the campaign of beatings and killings that the opposition says has left at least 60 dead and about 200 missing. More than 3,000 people have been treated in hospital after severe beatings.
Mr Tsvangirai said the campaign had had a devastating effect on his party. "The structure of our party has been decimated and our polling agents remain prime targets," he said. -