VOA标准英语10月-Zimbabwean Parties Still Arguing Over Cabinet Pos

The parties to Zimbabwe's power sharing agreement have failed to agree on the allocation of cabinet posts. Tendai Maphosa reports for VOA from Harare that the opposition¹ says the only option is intervention² by the Southern African Development Community and the African Union.
　

Nelson Chamisa

Three weeks after they sealed a power sharing deal, Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, appear nowhere near agreement on the allocation of key cabinet posts. Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa tells VOA that after a meeting Tuesday, the parties are further apart now than when they started talking.

"If we were centimeters apart, now we are meters apart," Chamisa said, "the gap is increasing by the day, the misunderstanding seems to have grown even sharper. I don't know how we are going to solve this but certainly the situation is that we'll have to refer this to SADC and the AU to resolve the current impasse³ because there is nothing other than mediation⁴ that is going to help the situation."

Government media has repeatedly claimed the parties have agreed on all but two ministries⁵: home affairs and finance. But Chamisa dismisses that saying there is no agreement on any of 10 key ministries.

"To say that we are left with two ministries is actually being untruthful," Chamisa noted⁶, "and obviously Zanu-PF have chosen propaganda, misinformation to mislead the world so that people may think that things are actually moving when there is no progress at all."

In what seems to be degenerating⁷ into a war of claim and counter-claim one of Zanu-PF's negotiators, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, has accused the Movement for Democratic Change of endangering the power-sharing talks. He told Reuters news agency that the MDC is prejudicing talks by trying to negotiate in public. The report says he also rejected opposition calls for mediation in the stalled process, saying there was no need.

Under the terms of the power sharing agreement signed on September 15 Zanu-PF gets 15 of the 31 cabinet posts agreed on. The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai gets 13 and with the remaining three going to a smaller faction⁸ of the MDC.

But despite the differences, MDC's Nelson Chamisa insists his party is still fully⁹ committed to the deal. All his party wants, he says, is an equal distribution of key ministries, which would result in what he calls a partnership¹⁰ of equals.

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

3 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

4 mediation   

n.调解

参考例句：

• The dispute was settled by mediation of the third country. 这场争端通过第三国的斡旋而得以解决。
• The dispute was settled by mediation. 经调解使争端得以解决。

5 ministries   

（政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期

参考例句：

• Local authorities must refer everything to the central ministries. 地方管理机构应请示中央主管部门。
• The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third. 部委的数量已经减少了1/3。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 degenerating   

衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denied that some young people today were degenerating. 他否认现在某些青年在堕落。
• Young people of today are not degenerating. 今天的青年并没有在变坏。

8 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

9 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

10 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。