afrol News, 4 September - Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has said he will go ahead and form a Cabinet if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai does not sign a power-sharing deal on Thursday.

"We feel frozen at the moment, we will not have a cabinet forever," Mugabe told state media.

The MDC has rejected the ultimatum and says it will not be "bullied" into signing a deal.

Both Mr Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai say they won elections earlier this year. The MDC says it was subjected to state-sponsored violence.

At talks mediated by South Africa the two rivals agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they cannot agree on how to share powers.

MDC wants Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while ruling Zanu-PF party insists he retain control of security forces and powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"If after Thursday, Tsvangirai does not want to sign, we will certainly put together a cabinet," state-owned Herald newspaper quoted Mr Mugabe as saying on his return from Zambia on Wednesday.

"We are a government and we are government that is empowered by elections. We should form a cabinet. We would not allow a situation where we will not have a cabinet forever," he said.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa dismissed these "threats", reports the Reuters.

"Where on earth have you seen dialogue held on the basis of threats and ultimatum? They want to bully us into an agreement, but that's completely unacceptable," he is reported to have said.

Mr Tsvangirai gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

MDC leader pulled out of the June run-off, saying 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and Zanu-PF militias.

The ruling party has denied claims and accused MDC of both exaggerating the scale of violence and being responsible for it.

Numerous human rights reports have backed opposition claims. Last week, MDC chairman Lovemore Moyo was elected speaker of parliament, where MDC has a majority following March general elections.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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