|
 HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's battered but emboldened opposition leader threatened to boycott planned elections next year as church leaders launched an appeal for democracy Tuesday in the mounting challenge to autocratic President Robert Mugabe.
As Mugabe prepared to leave for a hastily convened southern African summit to discuss the growing crisis, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he would boycott presidential elections scheduled next year unless the vote is carried out under a new democratic constitution that ensures that balloting is free and fair.
"We will never go into an election that is predetermined," Tsvangirai said at a memorial service for Gift Tandare, an opposition activist shot dead by police March 11 when they crushed a prayer meeting in the western Harare township of Highfield that authorities said was a banned political protest.
|