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Zimbabwe's opposition party to be absent from summit in Swaziland

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-20 18:51

NAIROBI - Zimbabwe's opposition party MDC-T said Monday in Johannesburg that it will not attend a summit due to be held in Swaziland Monday to seek a breakthrough in Zimbabwe's deadlock over allocation of ministries, agencies reported.

Zimbabwe's opposition leader and Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai addresses thousands of his supporters at a rally in Masvingo, some 300 km (186 miles) south-east of the capital Harare, October 19, 2008. [Agencies]

The party's chief negotiator Tendai Biti was quoted as saying at a press conference that the party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai was not going to the meeting of the security committee of the Southern African Development Community because he was denied a passport.

Zimbabwe's rival parties signed a landmark power-sharing deal on September 15 aimed to end the country's political impasse, which has worsened the country's economic crisis.

Under the deal, the parties should form a cabinet of 31 ministries, of which 15 go to the ZANU-PF led by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, 13 to the Movement for Democratic Change led by Tsvangirai (MDC-T), and three to the breakaway wing of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara.

The parties have been negotiating on which party controls which ministries.

Their talks reached a deadlock last Friday after four days of negotiations mediated by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

The discussions stalled on the allocation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which controls the police, according to Zimbabwe's state-owned The Herald newspaper.