HARARE (AFP) — Negotiators for Zimbabwe's political leaders failed Friday to agree on key ministries, with the main opposition saying it will not be "mere accessories" in another ZANU-PF government.
"The negotiators met but they could not come to an agreement," Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told AFP, saying there was no shift of position on the part of the longtime ruling party.
"They are insisting on having all the key positions and we are saying let's have genuine inclusive power-sharing... We will not allow ourselves to be mere accessories in another ZANU-PF government."
He said discussions between the negotiators would continue. "It's a negotiation and we will continue to discuss issues until we carve out a deal."
President Robert Mugabe, MDC leader and prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai, and deputy prime minister-elect Arthur Mutambara failed Thursday to agree on the cabinet posts and referred the matter to their negotiators.
The spokesman for Mutambara's breakaway MDC faction, Edwin Mushoriwa, told AFP that a decision on the cabinet posts would now be on hold until Mugabe returns from the UN General Assembly.
"It won't be possible to resolve the issue in the absence of one of the principals, President Mugabe, who is leaving for the UN assembly in New York," he said.
State television confirmed Mugabe was leaving for New York later Friday.
Although Mugabe's party has not yet officially announced that he will be going to the United Nations, the veteran leader travels annually to the general assembly, which on Monday will hold a debate on African development.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed last Monday a power-sharing deal that set out a framework for a multi-party government in order to break an electoral deadlock.
ZANU-PF was allotted 15 portfolios in the new cabinet, Tsvangirai's MDC 13 and Mutambara's faction three.
Political analysts said Friday that ZANU-PF's leaders were not used to sharing power.
"This is also an indication that Mugabe's hardliners are trying to throw spanners in this deal as they are afraid that they will lose out in the deal. They have been used to getting almost anything for free," said Charles Mangongera, an independent analyst based in Harare.
But Mangongera believed this would not derail the deal, adding that the 50-50 power-sharing arrangement should reflect the agreement and not allow the MDC to get "Mickey Mouse ministries".
Bornwell Chakaodza, a political commentator and columnist in the privately-owned Financial Gazette newspaper, also told AFP that the deadlock was temporary.
ZANU-PF still wanted to cling on to powerful ministries such as defence, home affairs, finance and information.
"But they must know that they cannot have their cake and eat it. They must be prepared to share. They must realise this is a matter of give and take."
Mugabe told the ZANU-PF central committee on Wednesday that party divisions during elections in March had cost him a winning majority in the first round of the presidential election.
"One keeps asking if only we had not blundered in the harmonised election we would not be facing this humiliation," he said.
But the veteran leader, in an address broadcast live on television, went on to assure his party that it remained in "the driving seat" and "will not tolerate any nonsense from our new partners."
The 84-year-old Mugabe also called on ZANU-PF leaders to explain to Zimbabweans that the new deal meant former opponents were now political partners.
ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time to Tsvangirai's MDC in March elections, while Mugabe failed to win presidential elections outright.
However the veteran president kept his job in June after Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off poll, saying his supporters were in danger from violent attacks blamed on ZANU-PF.
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