Development Talks blog discusses Zimbabwe presidential politics: “With just under 8 weeks to go before the elections, last week saw the announcement of the failure of the 2 MDC factions to form a coalition for the upcoming election in March. Talks between the two party leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, collapsed after their failure to agree on the selection of candidates in the election. The other dramatic turn in the week was the announcement by Simba Makoni, a former Finance Minister and member of the ZANU PF politburo, that he would be contesting the elections as an Independent.”