Morgan Tsvangirai Prime Minister designate and MDC leader has issued a statement on the power sharing talks deadlock. I found it worthwhile to publish it as it is:

9 October 2008

Statement by the President of the Movement for Democratic Change on the state of the dialogue

Suffering of Zimbabweans

Today is exactly 24 days after the signing of the global political
agreement between ourselves and ZANU PF. On the day we signed the
agreement the people of Zimbabwe breathed a sigh of relief and their
hopes for a final resolution of this crisis were raised. unfortunately
no progress has been made since then, to bring the Zimbabwean people
to the beginning of the path of recovery. Instead the economic crisis
has worsened with people spending all their days in endless cash
queues. We now live in an environment characterised by hunger and
starvation and we are days way from seeing people dropping dead on the
streets. i believe suffering knows no political affiliation and both
ZANU PF and MDC supporters are suffering under this economic
crisis.The agricultural season is upon us yet the nation is not
prepared to take full advantage of what promises to be a good season.

We have just witnessed the conclusion of a disastrous education year
in the history of our country, with the national examination board
crippled by the economic crisis to the extent of failing to implement
the Grade 7 examination sitting for this year. The countries
universities are failing to open for the next semester due to the
economic crisis.

I stated at my last press conference that given a nation in such a
state it was necessary to put a government in place in order for us t
begin the task of ensuring that the problems facing our country are
dealt with. i believe that as leaders we have a duty of ensuring that
we reward Zimbabweans for their patience and commitment to peace by
ensuring we succeed in working together.We have actively engaged our
colleagues in ZANU PF with a view to ensuring that we have agreement
on the outstanding issues. May l take this opportunity to brief the
nation on the state of the dialogue.

State of the dialogue

We have been engaging with our colleagues in  ZANU PF at both the
negotiators and principals level.

In particular we have been deliberating on the allocation of
ministries. There has been no progress made on this entire section as
ministries can only be negotiated comprehensively and not
individually. It is not true to say that we are left with two
ministries to negotiate as any agreement reached on those two
particular ministries would have an effect on the allocation of the
rest of the ministries.In this regard we have declared a deadlock and
therefore the process can not move forward except in the presence of
the facilitator.

I would like to emphasise that in looking at the allocation of
ministries we have been informed by our desire as MDC ,of ensuring
that we have a fair power sharing arrangement that allows us to deal
with the current economic crisis while at the same time ensuring that
we guarantee the basic freedoms for our people as well as democratize
our society.

We have not yet deliberated on the outstanding issue of the allocation
of governors. This issue remains outstanding considering that as
negotiating parties we agreed that the allocation of governors must be
in the spirit of the result of the election on the 29th of March 2008.

There is still an outstanding issue of omissions made in the signed
agreement at the signing ceremony on the 15th of September, that had
been agreed and initialled by all parties when we signed the original
agreement on the 11th of September 2008. We are assured that the
facilitator will sort out this problem and provide an updated document
to the general public.

Lack of paradigm

We are concerned by the lack of paradigm shift on the part of our
colleagues in ZANU PF and have watched with dismay

-their continued hate language in the state media which is destroying
the hope of our people as well as their confidence in this power
sharing arrangement.
-the continued trumped up charges brought against our Secretary
General, members of parliament and various members of our party
structures across the country.
-the continued discrimination on the basis of political affiliation
mainly taking place in the rural areas.
-the continued interference with, and threatening of, our councils, by
the illegal minister of local government.
-the lack of sincerity and commitment to working together demonstrated
by what should be a simple administrative issue like issuing my
passport, which has been turned into a political weapon by our
colleagues in  ZANU PF.

Throughout this negotiation effort up to the signing of the global
political agreement we have compromised on many ocassions with a view
to ensuring that the political crisis in our country is resolved in
the interest of our nation.We are committed to change and therefore do
not have challenges accepting change in its many forms. ZANU PF is not
sensitive to the plight of the people and therefore has not gone
through a paradigm shift of accepting the change created by signing
the global political agreement.

SADC and AU are the guarantors

The global political agreement we have is guaranteed by SADC and the
African Union and therefore in the event of a dispute or deadlock as
we have now, the matter should be taken to SADC and AU in order for
them to assist us. We have communicated this position to  the African
Union and to SADC as well as to the facilitator and have confidence
that our African brothers will do everytihng in their power to ensure
that this issue is resolved with speed.

We as Zimbabweans owe it to our African counterparts to ensure that we
spare no effort in resolving the outstanding issues. We look forward
ot working with SADC, AU, and the facilitator in order to find a
solution.

I thank you