Prospects for a power-sharing deal with Zimbabwe's opposition MDC look remote and the current round of negotiations is unlikely to produce a breakthrough, a senior ruling ZANU-PF party official said today.
A new round of talks began in Harare yesterday between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's party to try to reach a deal to end a post-election crisis that is worsening Zimbabwe's economic decline.
"Our assessment is that they are simply trying to put spanners in the works, and they are not serious about reaching a workable power-sharing arrangement," the ZANU-PF official said.
"If that is their approach, and we believe it is, there are just no prospects for any agreement. Instead of a power-sharing arrangement they are looking at deposing ZANU-PF and transferring power to the MDC through these talks."
The ZANU-PF official's assessment of the post-election talks came just before Zimbabwe's parties were about to re-open the latest round of negotiations mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki.
