Zimbabwe’s state-run press is floating the possibility that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will annul last month’s presidential election and call for a national unity government with himself as president while a new constitution is negotiated and a fresh ballot is held.
The proposal, in an opinion piece in the Herald, is not a formal Zanu-PF plan. But the newspaper is often used by the ruling party to lay the ground for policy changes.
The proposal is viewed by the opposition as another attempt by Mugabe to overturn the election results.
British premier Gordon Brown on Wednesday repeated accusations that Mugabe was trying to rig the elections. Brown said he would propose an embargo on all arms going to Zimbabwe.
UNDECIDED
With the results of the ballot still unannounced 25 days after it was held, and a partial recount of parliamentary and presidential votes taking days, it is increasingly apparent that the Zimbabwean government is undecided on the way to proceed.
Zanu-PF has touted the idea of a presidential run-off with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s (MDC) candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai. But despite the ruling party’s campaign of violence against opposition voters, Mugabe can be far from certain of winning, particularly with growing regional scrutiny. His government appears to be stalling while it finds a credible way to hold on to power.
In the Herald article, Obediah Mukura Mazombwe, a pro-Zanu-PF academic, wrote: “The [ruling] party should allow MDC-Tsvangirai, now in virtual exile, to return home and freely negotiate its participation in a [Southern African Development Community-mediated] process that should lead to the establishment of a transitional government of national unity led by the incumbent president.”
FRESH ELECTION
He also suggested that fresh elections be held after a referendum on the new constitution.
Tsvangirai has said he would accept a power-sharing government if he was installed as president and Mugabe retires.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DISASTROUS VISIT: The talks in Saudi Arabia come after an altercation at the White House that led to the Ukrainian president leaving without signing a minerals deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations today on resolving the three-year conflict would see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelenskiy’s disastrous White House visit last month. Zelenskiy yesterday said that he would meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team.” At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US
RSS