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Harare: President Robert Mugabe won a parliamentary vote strengthening his iron hold on the country yesterday as a row brewed in Europe on how to deal with Zimbabwe.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed to snub an EU-African summit in Lisbon in December if Mugabe was invited, accusing him of "abuse of his own people". He also urged the EU to tighten sanctions against Zimbabwe's ruling elite.
Brown's threatened boycott was played down by EU president Portugal and a source close to the presidency said Europe's ties with Africa could not be held hostage to the Zimbabwe issue.
In Harare, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) voted for a Bill in parliament that effectively ensures Mugabe will be able to choose his successor if he stands down.
The Bill was supported by all 111 members present under a compromise between ruling ZANU-PF and the MDC which watered down Mugabe's powers to appoint legislators.
But after a general strike call to protest against Mugabe's economic policies collapsed on Wednesday, the parliamentary vote was another sign of the 83-year-old leader's dominance and opposition disarray.
The Lisbon summit will be the first between the EU and Africa in seven years. Summit plans stumbled in the past because former colonial power Britain and other EU states refused to invite Mugabe, ensuring the Africans stayed away.
Portugal, which wants the meeting to forge deeper ties between the EU and Africa, suggested the event - a high spot in its six-month presidency - could go ahead without Brown. "It will be very hard not to invite Mugabe. Some African leaders in the African Union [AU] might not be willing to come if he is not invited," the Portuguese source said. "He is the oldest leader in the AU and is seen by many as a freedom fighter," he said, noting Mugabe had spent 10 years in jail for opposing white minority rule.
Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa - head of a 14-nation southern African group seeking to end Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis - said he would boycott the summit if Mugabe was not invited and other African leaders could join him.
Critics say Mugabe has presided over the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy, now marked by the world's highest inflation rate of about 6,600 per cent and unemployment around 80 per cent. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has ignored calls for democratic reforms and denies accusations of widespread human rights abuses. The constitutional Bill passed in Harare yesterday will enable parliament, dominated by ZANU-PF, to choose a successor if an incumbent president fails to finish a term.
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