ZIMBABWE:ZIMBABWEANS HAVE already voted against Robert Mugabe as president and will do so again in next month's second-round poll, Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai has forecast.
Following that, the ousted former president could negotiate "an honourable exit" to enable the country to move forward, he said.
Speaking on the margins of the 55th annual congress of the Liberal International, hosted this year in Belfast by the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Mr Tsvangirai said: "Mugabe lost the first round.
"I am so confident, despite all the violence, come the second round [the electorate] will reconfirm that rejection. I am so confident that as we have succeeded in the first round we will succeed again in the second."
Zimbabwe faces what he called a "generational and a political transitional challenge" which was much bigger than a run-off election with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF.
"Some form of negotiations are therefore essential and desirable in order to 'soft-land' the crisis. It is not just a question of one percentage point higher or lower, it is much more than that."
Speaking to The Irish Times as he prepared to return to Zimbabwe for the first time since the first-round elections on March 29th, Mr Tsvangirai said he had spent the intervening weeks in contact with other regional leaders.
"I did not run away," he said. "I am not in exile. It was for strategic reasons that I had to engage with other African leaders about the crisis we are facing. I think diplomatic efforts have paid off. The better understanding of the crisis among African leaders [means] it was not a waste of time." Accepting he and his supporters faced risks, the MDC leader denied he was in a special position.
"I am not a special person, so I am just as at risk as the next Zimbabwean who is confronting the regime. I am equally vulnerable as everyone else." Regarding the possible exit of Mr Mugabe, Mr Tsvangirai said that was "something that should be subject to negotiations".
"In negotiations there are some things that you set aside to look at the greater good. As far as I am concerned, if President Mugabe would accept to negotiate. . . an honourable exit, I'm sure it's a price we would all have to pay in Zimbabwe. I think it's a cheaper price to pay than continuing with the conflict."
Mr Tsvangirai drew parallels with the ending of violence in Northern Ireland and the emergence of a constitutional settlement. "Belfast was known for a very bitter conflict," he said. "But there is only one lesson - all conflicts must be resolved by dialogue. It doesn't matter how bitter it is, how divisive it is, all conflicts will end up in negotiated settlement."
He insisted the big question in Zimbabwe was not about the outcome of next month's second-round run-off. "It is about how the opposing protagonists are able to put the nation back on its feet. That is the biggest challenge. To ask the winners and to ask the losers, Zanu-PF, we all have to put the country first."
The MDC leader said he fully expected the "transparent" posting of election results outside each polling station next month as in the first round of voting. However, he warned: "What I think is going to affect the next round is the violence. . . The burden of responsibility of accepting the outcome of the result is not only on me and on the MDC, it is also on Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF."-