MDC talks end in deadlock

MDC talks end in deadlock

• Tsvangirai fires fresh salvo at colleagues

• MDC leaders meet to avert imminent split

• Sikhala withdraws MDC funding claims

• MDC youths on violence charges

• D Muleya: MDC goes down, fighting itself!

• Msekiwa Makwanya: Rank hypocrisy in MDC senate debate

• Nigeria, Ghana reject funding MDC

• Ncube not for turning

• Bekithemba Mhlanga: Label food, not people

• Nixon Mao: Our darkest day

• Tsvangirai threatens 'political action'

• Tsvangirai on ropes after senate rebellion

• Nigeria, Ghana sucked into MDC crisis

• Prof J Moyo: 'All Zanu PF want is geriatrics to be senators'

• Stanford Mukasa: Rejoinder to PT Nyathi

• Bloody Monday for MDC

• Paul T Nyathi: Tribal slurs easy to make, but extremely dangerous

• Brilliant Mhlanga: MDC no longer an alternative

• Patrick Mlambo: Tsvangirai has lost plot

• Nyathi hits back at Tsvangirai bribery claims

• B Mhlanga: Tsvangirai fell for Zanu PF bait

• Alex Magaisa: Handling a fledging democracy

• Elliot Pfebve: Tsvangirai & Mugabe, larvae and butterfly scenario

• MDC moves to impeach Tsvangirai

• Sibanda: Tsvangirai in breach of constitution

• Tsvangirai accuses officials of vote-buying

• Itai Zimunya: MDC split good for Zimbabwe

• Tsvangirai bid to heal rifts

• Chenjerai Hove: The MDC and a very Zimbabwean disease

• Tsvangirai must 'come to terms' - Nyathi

• M Makwanya: Lessons in democratic process

• Heads must roll

• MDC splits widen after senate vote

• Tsvangirai: We are out

• Nyathi: We are in

• MDC to boycott senate - Tsvangirai

By Staff Reporter/AFP

ZIMBABWE'S main opposition party edged closer to a split Monday as crisis talks to resolve differences over taking part in controversial polls next month ended in a deadlock.

"We had a two-hour meeting to further discuss the crisis in the party and the president and members of the management committee agreed to disagree," said Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire.

"The president (Morgan Tsvangirai) refused to accept the national council resolution to participate in the senate elections in violation of the party's constitution and placed himself not only above the council but also above the constitution," he told AFP.

Chimanikire said after Monday's meeting of the opposition party's six top-ranking officials that there were "no prospects of another meeting" and those who have registered to contest the polls were going ahead.

He said Tsvangirai "and his cabinet of unelected, self-seeking individuals" usurped the powers of the national council and sought to replace officials elected by the party congress.

Chimanikire also accused Tsvangirai and other officials of inciting "hooligans through lies and misrepresentation" to harass members of a faction that voted in favour of contesting the senate polls in the southern African country.

Tsvangirai's spokesman William Bango confirmed that there had been no shift in the MDC leader's position on the senate. He said the management committee had reconvened the national council to meet on Saturday.

"The President’s position on the Senate election remains unchanged. He maintains that the MDC must stay out of the polls," said Bango. "The management committee of the MDC has called for a national council meeting on Saturday at which the party President shall present a report on the state of the party, the current preparations on the Congress process and the way forward."

Cracks in the opposition widened last week after 26 members defied Tsvangirai's call to boycott next month's elections to a new upper house of parliament, which critics say is aimed at tightening the ruling party's stranglehold on the legislature.

Tsvangirai on Thursday said party officials had resolved "to continue the dialogue with a view to finding an expeditious resolution of the dispute in the party."

He said the MDC management committee also called on members to "immediately refrain from all forms of threats, intimidation and violence against any official or member of the party related to the dispute over the senate election."

As simmering divisions in the MDC became apparent two weeks ago, party leaders issued contradictory statements over the party's participation in the senate elections.

Tsvangirai announced a boycott, but hours later party spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said the MDC's supreme decision-making organ had voted to take part in the elections.

The MDC, which won nearly half of the contested parliamentary seats in the 2000 elections, decided to contest parliamentary elections earlier this year despite concerns they would not be fair.
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