ZAMBIAN President Michael Sata has said he would not block President Robert Mugabe’s push for new elections and dismissed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as a “stooge” of the West.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF party want new elections to end the coalition government insisting the compromise, negotiated by the regional SADC grouping after inconclusive elections in 2008, was no longer workable.
But MDC-T leader Tsvangirai, with the backing of SADC mediator and South African President Jacob Zuma, want work on a new constitution completed first along with a raft of other political reforms.
But Sata, who last September defeated incumbent Rupiah Banda and took over power in a peaceful transition, said the reforms demanded by the MDC-T leader were unnecessary, adding he would not block Mugabe’s call for new elections.
"You people, the Western countries, you taught us that democracy is elections. Now somebody wants elections and you say no," Sata said in an interview with the UK-based Telegraph newspaper.
"There will be elections and Mugabe will go and someone else will take over, but not someone imposed by the Western countries."
Sata also dismissed Tsvangirai – who is generally well regarded by the West -- as a stooge.
"We don't know the policies of Morgan – he has other people speaking for him rather than speaking for himself," he said.
Mugabe’s critics had hoped Sata would use his strong mandate to increase pressure on Zimbabwe but the Zambian leader said his country would do better to solve its own issues before meddling in those of others.