ZIMBABWE:PRESSURE WAS mounting yesterday on Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to sign a powersharing deal agreed in principle by President Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller opposition faction.
Early yesterday morning negotiations between the three party leaders broke up amid rumours that Mr Mutambara had signed up to a deal on a unity government with Mr Mugabe, which Mr Tsvangirai was unwilling to accept.
Mr Mutambara has since denied the accusation saying: "All three parties must agree if there is to be an agreement. There is no way you can extract a bilateral agreement from a tripartite process."
However, he urged "the leaders of our political parties to rise up to the challenge of leadership", and specifically asked Mr Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to "put national interest before self-interest".
He claimed there was an agreement "on everything except one aspect," and that Mr Tsvangirai had agreed three times to "this one aspect, and three times he changed his mind".
Mr Mutambara declined to name the issue Mr Tsvangirai has objected to, but said "on our side, as a party we have no problems on that aspect",
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating the talks, said the negotiations had been adjourned to give the MDC leader "time to reflect and consult" on one remaining issue, which is understood to revolve around who holds the most power.
Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, reportedly wants to retain as much authority as possible as president, while Mr Tsvangirai is said to want sweeping executive powers as prime minister.
As the MDC leader met senior party colleagues to decide whether or not to accept the agreement on the table, Zimbabwe's state media stoked the rumour that Mr Mutambara had sold out by saying he and Mr Mugabe both agreed "they cannot wait any longer and the nation demands progress".
"President Mugabe will go ahead and form the next government and parliament will soon sit," the Herald quoted a source as saying.
Mr Tsvangirai's MDC secured 100 seats in Zimbabwe's March 29th parliamentary election, while Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party won 99 and Mr Mutambara's MDC faction 10.
Mr Mutambara's party therefore holds the balance of power and, in theory, he could give Zanu-PF control of parliament if he sided with the 84-year-old and his colleagues followed suit.
David Coltart, a senator and secretary for legal affairs with Mr Mutambara's MDC faction, told The Irish Times that even if his leader had made a deal with Mr Mugabe, his party colleagues would be unlikely to support his decision as he was only mandated to negotiate an inclusive arrangement. "Our support base is in Matabeleland where the ruling regime committed massacres in the 1980s, so to betray these people by making an agreement with the perpetrators of it does not make sense," he said.
Mr Mbeki, who arrived in Harare on Saturday, said before going to Angola yesterday that "negotiations must continue". "I am quite certain that all of the parties are determined to find a solution . . . within the context of powersharing negotiations."
A statement from the MDC issued yesterday on behalf of Mr Tsvangirai said he remained "committed to reaching an agreement that upholds the will of the people".