Zimbabwe Opposition OKs Power-Sharing Plan

Tsvangirai will be PM starting Feb. 11

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 30, 2009 8:53 AM CST

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Zimbabwe Opposition OKs Power-Sharing Plan — Zimbabwe's main opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, center, addresses hundreds of people gathered outside the party's offices in Harare today. (AP Photo)

In a “leap of faith” settlement, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader has agreed to a power-sharing plan after months of political turmoil, the BBC reports. Morgan Tsvangirai will become prime minister on Feb. 11 while Robert Mugabe remains president under a new timetable brokered by a southern African coalition. “We are unequivocal, we will go into this government,” Tsvangirai told AFP.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party has little faith in Mugabe and said the latest summit hadn’t met its expectations. But “we are bound by” the group’s terms, Tsvangirai said. The MDC saw no other way toward a unity government. The parties signed a power-sharing deal in September, but it has been mired in political trouble. They agreed today to form a bipartisan committee to oversee the unity government.
(More Zimbabwe stories.)

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