Mugabe rival rejects idea of opposition coalition

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwean presidential hopeful Simba Makoni said on Monday he would not form a coalition with the main opposition party because it would alienate dissenters in President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.

Both Makoni, expelled from Mugabe's ZANU-PF and running as an independent in the March 29 presidential election, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, have rejected the idea of forming a united front.

Analysts said their determination to go it alone could split the opposition vote and pave the way for Mugabe's re-election to another five-year term.

"There are a large number of people in ZANU-PF who share my proper vision. I don't want to alienate those people by forming a coalition with one entity," Makoni said in an interview with South Africa's Talk Radio 702.

"I am in a coalition with the people of Zimbabwe."

Tsvangirai has also dismissed the idea of a coalition, telling supporters on Saturday that the MDC was the legitimate voice for democratic change in the country. A smaller MDC faction has, however, thrown its support behind Makoni.

Media have speculated that the two will form a united front to end Mugabe's 28-year rule in the economically devastated southern African nation.

Makoni denied on Monday that his candidacy would help the 84-year-old Zimbabwean ruler. "I am nobody's tool," he said.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has heaped scorn on his two main opponents, comparing Makoni to a puffed-up frog and political prostitute and calling Tsvangirai a puppet of Britain and the United States.

The British and U.S. governments have accused the Zimbabwean government of widespread human rights abuses, stifling dissent and destroying a once-prosperous economy, which is suffering from inflation over 100,000 percent, mass unemployment and chronic food and fuel shortages.

They and other Western nations have imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his top officials.

The Zimbabwean leader blames his nation's economic crisis on "sabotage" by Western governments, which he says are angry over his decision to seize thousands of white-owned farms and redistribute the land to poor blacks.

Both Makoni and Tsvangirai have vowed to reverse Zimbabwe's economic meltdown if elected next month.