ELECTION watchdog Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) has implored government to come up with a robust regulatory framework for political parties to strengthen electoral democracy.
In recent position paper, titled Pragmatics and Purposes of Political Party Regulation in Zimbabwe, Zesn said the absence of legislation regulating political parties in the country had been identified as the major problem contributing to lack of sanity in some of their operations.
In Zimbabwe, political parties financing has been the sole regulated aspect, with other aspects such as registration and deregistration remaining unregulated.
“Consequently, the country is faced with challenges of election-related disputes and conflict, volatile party systems and lack of political party accountability. Absence of legislation regulating political parties has also led to a wide range of other electoral challenges, impacting the integrity and effectiveness of democratic processes particularly in the 2023 elections.
“Additionally, this situation contributed to the administrative challenges faced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and other electoral stakeholders who engage with political parties. Following the CCC 2023 recalls and the subsequent by-elections to fill the vacant seats, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs highlighted this burden, suggesting that political parties ought to be registered.”
Zesn also said that the lack of political party regulation also placed a huge burden and expectation on Zec and other electoral stakeholders to consult all organisations that identified themselves as political parties.
“One of the areas that need urgent attention to mitigate the growing trend of non-acceptance of election results is the promulgation or amendment of the party financing law. At the moment, only Zanu PF and Citizens Coalition for Change are beneficiaries of the current law.
“Hence the need for the revision of the clauses that ban private funding of parties. A comprehensive political parties regulation campaign and funding law must be promulgated based on best practices.”
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Zesn called for political parties to be regulated to ensure they adhere to a certain legal and normative framework in terms of their internal functioning, financing and code of conduct.
The election watchdog said a statutory body akin to the Kenyan Registrar of Parties must be established to deal with the registration of parties instead of Zec.
“Care must be taken to ensure that calls for the regulation of political parties are genuine and meant to enhance multi-party systems, inter-party relations and build stronger political parties.”
