HARARE, Sept 20: Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change failed again to break a deadlock over forming a cabinet after reaching a power-sharing deal, an MDC spokesman said on Friday.

“After the meeting of the negotiators last night, there has been no shift and the deadlock has not been broken. What we want is genuine power-sharing, not a false marriage,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

“The issue is about ZANU-PF not appreciating that this is not an exclusive ZANU-PF government. They want all the ministries and we obviously can’t countenance that.”

UN special envoy to Zimbabwe Haile Menkerios told reporters in New York that the parties had asked the mediating team led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the power-sharing agreement, to help resolve the new dispute.

President Robert Mugabe signed the agreement with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday, relinquishing some powers for the first time in nearly three decades of rule under pressure from regional leaders and a growing economic crisis.

They met on Thursday to try to sort out who gets which posts in the cabinet.

The deal with Tsvangirai

and the head of a breakaway opposition faction followed weeks of tense negotiations to end a political crisis compounded by the veteran leader’s disputed and unopposed re-election in a widely condemned vote in June.—Reuters