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Zimbabwe opposition coalition talks collapse
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
February 03, 2008

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=18188

Talks between two factions of Zimbabwe's main opposition to forge a coalition against President Robert Mugabe in elections next month collapsed Sunday, a faction leader said. "This thing is irretrievably broken," Arthur Mutambara told journalists in the capital after a series of meetings between his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change and another led by former trade unionists ended in deadlock. "People of Zimbabwe, we apologise for failing to construct a united front." Mutambara said a disagreement over seat allocations had been the dealbreaker. "From haggling over two seats last night, this morning our colleagues came back to us demanding 20 more seats in Matabeleland even where we have sitting MPs. At the same time they are not prepared to make such concessions in Harare." Matabeleland is considered a stronghold of the Mutambara faction while the splinter let by Morgan Tsvangirai is dominant in Harare.

"In the absence of an agreement, we have no choice but to go right ahead and provide leadership in this country," said Mutambara. "This means from this place we're going out in the country to work out our nominations for the presidency, 210 members of parliament, senators and councillors. Morgan Tsvangirai is not our candidate for the presidency of this country." He conceded chances of the opposition defeating Mugabe in March 29 elections were now slimmer. "Our chances of winning the election against Mugabe are reduced as compared to our chances if we were working together. We accept that a united front would make the opportunity to make every vote count against Mugabe a reality." Once a formidable force posing the stiffest challenge to Mugabe's more than two-decade stranglehold on power, the MDC was riven by factionalism following a row over senate elections in 2006. The factions temporarily set their differences aside and vowed to launch a united front against Mugabe last year after Tsvangirai and other party members were beaten by security forces breaking up an opposition rally.

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