RSS 2.0 FeedMarch 2011 Vol 30 Edition 1, National News, Southern Africa
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Tsvangirai Urges Plan for New Elections
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai urged southern African nations to establish a plan for new elections amid difficulties within the country’s coalition government.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai urged southern African nations to establish a plan for new elections amid difficulties within the country’s coalition government.
“There are a few problems developing in terms of cohesion” in the government of national unity formed in 2008, Tsvangirai told reporters yesterday after meeting Armando Guebuza, the president of neighboring Mozambique. Guebuza is a member of a three-nation panel on defense, politics and security, known as a troika, set up by the Southern African Development Community.
The troika, of which Guebuza is a member “should be fully briefed” on the situation in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai said after the two leaders held talks in Maputo, the Mozambican capital.
The Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai, formed a power-sharing government with President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front in 2008 after disputed elections. While the coalition helped end a decade of economic recession, it has often come close to breaking down. A new constitution must be agreed before a vote can take place, according to the accord.
Earlier yesterday, Tsvangirai met Zambian President Rupiah Banda, the head of the SADC troika, Zambian Watchdog, an Internet news site, reported yesterday. The Zimbabwe prime minister is also expected to travel to South Africa and Botswana, where he will meet those countries’ presidents, according to Newsday, a Harare-based newspaper.
