Tsvangirai threatens election boycott

to be held later this year.
In a meeting with a business delegation from Germany yesterday, Mr Tsvangirai – who is Prime Minister in the inclusive Government – said he would not participate in any election that President Mugabe calls this year.
President Mugabe has the constitutional autho-rity to dissolve Parliament and call an election at any time.
“MDC-T’s position is that elections should be free and fair and we will make sure that elections are not contested like 2008.
“The country should wait for the completion of the constitution-making process.
“However, I think you know the people we are dealing with, they are very unpredictable.
“Should (President) Mugabe try to unilaterally declare elections, we will not be part of it. We are not prepared to go for a contested election again,” he said.
Observers have for months pointed out that MDC-T is not willing to go to the polls because they have no confidence in how they will perform.
President Mugabe has indicated that he is not prepared to remain as head of an inclusive Government beyond mid-2011 because of his partners’ insincerity. PM Tsvangirai yesterday also defended Zimbabwe’s indigenisation policies, saying the citizenry should benefit from its resources ahead of foreigners.
“Zimbabwe is endowed with mineral resources which are meant to benefit every Zimbabwean wi-thout segregation on race or creed.
“White Zimbabweans are not and will not be seg-regated, they also have rights just like majority blacks but historically blacks were marginalised thus we are trying to correct that.
“Blacks, as the majority, must benefit from their own resources.”
Oddly though, PM Tsvangirai made no mention of the contentious issue of sanctions in his meeting with the Germans.
The meeting was held two days after the European Union extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year, a move analysts said was a way of trying to influence this year’s elections in MDC-T’s favour.
The lack of mention of sanctions in the meeting was also odd considering that Germany’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Albrecht Conze, who was present, had this week said some members of the EU were questioning the embargo’s legality.
Zanu-PF and MDC have both slammed the emba-rgo, while MDC-T has remained quiet since the announcement on Tuesday.
Yesterday, MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti was not reachable for comment while spokes-person Mr Nelson Chamisa said he was in South Africa and could not say anything at present.
Minister of State in the PM’s Office, Mr Jameson Timba was also not reachable, as was PM Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Mr Luke Tamborinyoka.