Zim UN ambassador calls for power sharing

Staff writer
29/04/08

Boniface Chidyausiku, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the United Nations, has said that whoever wins the presidential election will have to form a government of national unity. He told the BBC; "There is no way anybody can do without the other."

The two formations of the MDC announced Monday that they will be working together and would therefore have a majority in parliament.

But Chidyausiku said that a two-thirds majority was needed to change the constitution and there was a "hung parliament". He seems to have forgotten that Mugabe governed without such a majority between 2000 and 2005.

Last week the government controlled Herald newspaper also raised the possibility of a government of national unity.

Chidyausiku was speaking on the BBC's Network Africa programme and said that it would be possible for the rival political leaders to work together. He used Kenya as an example. But Bright Matonga, the Zanu PF spokesman, said that his party could never work with Mr Tsvangirai because he was a "sell-out".