ZIMBABWE: Tsvangirai predicts death of Zimbabwe if opposition don't win election next year

Zimbabwe's main opposition leader on Sunday (July 15) warned of further turmoil if President Robert Mugabe rigs presidential and parliamentary elections next March, but pledged to continue pursuing talks with ruling ZANU-PF party. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) asserts Mugabe and ZANU-PF have stolen past elections since 2000 and that this is the root of Zimbabwe's long-running political and economic crisis. The MDC has in the past suggested it may boycott next year's elections if there is no new constitution to guarantee a fair vote and has put the issue on the agenda of regional talks led by South African President Thabo Mbeki. "The next election, if Mugabe steals again the next election, it will be a death sentence for this country," Morgan Tsvangirai, the main MDC leader told thousands of supporters at a rally in the town of Chitungwiza, 30 km south of Harare. Mugabe dismisses the opposition's charges of vote rigging and says the economy has been sabotaged by his Western foes, led by Britain. Inflation, the highest in the world, has rocketed above 4,500 percent and four in five adults are jobless. In 2000 the MDC came closest to unseating Mugabe when it won 57 of the 120 contested seats but has seen its fortunes wane due to infighting and what political analysts say is a sustained crackdown on its structures by the government. Tsvangirai again criticised Mugabe's government proposed constitutional which will expand the two Houses of Parliament and give parliament, dominated by ZANU-PF, the right to nominate a president if Mugabe retires or is incapacitated. Current provisions require that presidential elections be held after three months. The MDC says a new constitution tops the agenda of the Southern African Development Community initiated talks and that the amendments were in bad faith. Tsvangirai said that the MDC would not only rely on the talks to resolve the country's crisis. He did not elaborate. Tsvangirai said a blanket price freeze imposed by the government, which has sparked shortages of basic foodstuffs like maize-meal, cooking oil and sugar, was meant to divert attention from the eight-year economic crisis.

ITN Source | July 16, 2007

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