Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

6.3.1 The proscription model
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Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy
To proscribe means to declare illegal or outlaw. However, the words ‘illegal’ or
‘outlaw’ are not used in any of the 159 national laws under the heading political
parties/legal status. If countries seek to outlaw all political parties, they tend instead
to do so by denying them legal status. One way to do this is by not mentioning
parties in the constitution. But failing to mention political parties in constitutions
is not a certain sign of the proscription model. Janda (2005: 9) offers the case of
the Algerian constitution, article 42, as an example of the proscriptive model: it
states that political parties cannot be founded on a religious, linguistic, racial, sexual,
corporatist or regional basis. They may not resort to partisan propaganda pertaining
to these elements and they may not in any way submit to any interest or any foreign
party. No political party may resort to violence or constraint, of whatever nature or
form.
6.3.2 The permission model
To permit, of course, means to allow. The permission model of party law allows
parties to exist and operate without specifying what constitutes party membership,
how parties should organize, how they should select their leaders, and how they
should finance their operations (apart from the normal prohibitions of criminal law).
It is a minimalist model of regulation—at the extreme, a laissez-faire model (Janda
2005: 9–10).
6.3.3 The promotional model
To promote is to advance, further, or encourage. Governments sometimes enact
laws that promote not only the activities of political parties, but also their creation.
Typically, they do so through electoral laws that favour the creation or continuance of
numerous political parties. It has long been noted that parliamentary elections based
on proportional representation in multi-member districts yield a larger number of
parties than do elections in which seats are won by simple voting pluralities in singlemember
districts (Janda 2005: 10–11). Often, the nature of the electoral system is
specified in statutes, usually in codified bodies of electoral law. The electoral law of
Malawi, article 40 (92), provides that the state shall provide funds so as to ensure
that, during the life of any parliament, any political party which has secured more
than one-tenth of the national vote in elections to that parliament has sufficient funds
to continue to represent its constituencies. The electoral law of Congo (Brazzaville),