Zimbabwe's parliament passed a constitutional bill today to allow a coalition government of President Robert Mugabe and opposition rivals, being set up under a deal to end political and economic crisis.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed last week to join a unity government with Mugabe's Zanu-PF after months of wrangling over ministerial posts had stalled a power-sharing deal signed last year.
The vote yesterday was the first concrete step by the two parties to meet a deadline set by leaders from the Southern Africa Development Community for a unity government to be in place by February 13th.
Parliamentary speaker Lovemore Moyo said 184 members of the 210-seat parliament had voted for the bill, easily surpassing the two-thirds needed. Mr Tsvangirai's party has 100 seats to 99 for Zanu-PF.
The vote was greeted with jubilation and stomping of feet by legislators from both parties in a rare show of unity.
The bill was later passed unanimously in the Senate by all 72 senators who were present in the 93-member house.
Mr Tsvangirai will become prime minister in the envisaged unity government. Mr Mugabe will remain president. He was re-elected last June in a run-off vote which the opposition boycotted citing attacks on its supporters.
The economy of once-prosperous Zimbabwe is in ruins, with half the population in need of food aid. Official inflation, last recorded in mid-2008, had soared to 231 million per cent and the United Nations says unemployment is 94 per cent.
The country is in the midst of Africa's deadliest cholera epidemic in 15 years, which has infected nearly 66,000 people and killed over 3,000.
Reuters