Morgan agrees to early polls

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, frustrated by Zimbabwe's fractious coalition government and the extensive powers it affords President Robert Mugabe, has agreed to hold early elections this year.

But analysts say Tsvangirai will have his work cut out convincing members of his Movement for Democratic Change, as well as the African Union and its Zimbabwe mediator, President Jacob Zuma, of the wisdom of holding a vote before the necessary enabling environment is in place.

Zuma is to send a fact- finding mission to Zimbabwe but his adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, would not give exact dates of when it would start work.

Mugabe, 87, and his Zanu-PF party have long argued for early elections, saying the three-year-old coalition government had reached its sell-by date.

By contrast, the MDC has repeatedly warned that, without a number of key reforms, elections could be accompanied by widespread violence, as in 2008.

Tsvangirai's apparent turnaround is likely to be sharply resisted by civic organisations and some within the MDC who have demanded a new constitution and implementation of crucial reforms before voting takes place.

"The leaders agreed on electoral reforms, especially on the polling station-based voters' roll, and agreed that the existing system of the ward-based voters' roll should be maintained," said a government official.

MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora, however, denied that his party wanted early elections, despite senior MDC officials confirming that Tsvangirai now believed that early elections would be the only way out of the current impasse in the coalition government.

"Time is not on our side as we move towards the next election. Let us give momentum to our agreement by facilitating the creation of an enabling environment [in which] our people can exercise their right to choose their leaders freely," Tsvangirai wrote to Mugabe this month.

• AP reports that Zimbabwean police yesterday disrupted a Valentine's Day march promoting love between political rivals.