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Sharm Al Shaikh: African leaders stepped up pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to share power after last week's disputed runoff poll in which he was the sole candidate.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed the majority of leaders at today's African Union summit in Egypt, which Mugabe is also attending, back its claim of victory over the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front in elections in March. South Africa, whose president Thabo Mbeki heads a regional effort to mediate an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis, called on the two parties to begin talks.
"Zanu-PF and the MDC must enter into negotiations which will lead to the formation of a transitional government that can extricate Zimbabwe from its current political challenges,'' South Africa's Foreign Affairs Ministry said in an e-mailed statement from Pretoria, the capital.
Mugabe, 84, was sworn in yesterday for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president after the state-appointed electoral commission said he won the June 27 runoff ballot with 85.5 percent of the vote.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the poll citing a state-sponsored campaign of violence in which 86 of his supporters were killed.
The MDC beat Zanu-PF in municipal, district council and parliamentary elections in March, the first time Mugabe's party hasn't held a majority in those branches of government since independence in 1980, according to the electoral commission.
Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe in the presidential vote, without gaining the 50 percent needed to avoid a rerun, it said.
In his opening address at the AU summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said greater political will would be required to resolve the conflicts on the continent.
"Africa must fully shoulder its responsibility and do everything in its power to help Zimbabwe's parties to work together'' to overcome its current challenges, he said.
A group of international statesmen, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urged the African Union to appoint a special envoy to mediate talks between Mugabe and the opposition to create a transitional government and prepare for free elections.
The group, known as The Elders, said leaders at the AU summit should "clearly state that the results of the poll were illegitimate. They occurred under the cloud of targeted political violence, precipitating the withdrawal of one of the two candidates.''
The AU should pressure the Mugabe government to end the campaign of violence against the opposition and to allow international aid agencies to feed hungry Zimbabweans.
"The crisis in Zimbabwe affects all Africans,'' the group said in an e-mailed statement.
"And the fate of all Zimbabweans is on our conscience. The African Union has a commitment to good governance, justice, respect for human rights and the rule of law. Its leadership is needed at this pivotal moment.''
Thokozani Khupe, the vice president of the MDC, said 40 of Africa's 53 leaders supported its claim of victory in the first round of elections. The estimate was based on its lobbying of African governments and meetings with foreign ministers, Khupe said, declining to identify the people they had spoken to.
"Generally there is an agreement among African leaders that what Mugabe did on June 27 is unacceptable,'' Khupe said in an interview in Sharm Al Shaikh. "The African leaders recognize the election that was held on March 29.''
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