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Johannesburg: Prospects of resolving Zimbabwe's two-week-old election crisis appeared dim Friday after a government spokesman said President Robert Mugabe would not be attending a key weekend meeting with other regional leaders.
It is a reversal for Mugabe, who said Thursday he would attend the one-day summit in Lusaka, Zambia sponsored by the 15-member Southern African Development Community (SADC). The SADC called the summit to address Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential vote, the results of which are still unknown.
Movement for Democratic change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, plans to attend.
On Thursday evening Tsvangirai held talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Johannesburg. Details of the meeting were not released, but it comes amid growing pressure on South Africa to step in and help resolve the election.
Asked Friday why Mugabe decided not to attend the Zambia meeting, a spokesman said: "Why would he go? What would he go as? What could he answer?"
Spokesman Bright Matonga, Zimbabwe's deputy Minister of Information, said that because Mugabe was a candidate he was, like everyone else, powerless to say when the results would be announced or what they would show
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