Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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6.3.1 The proscription model 0 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),
International Idea article 54, stipulates that ‘The State assures the financing of political parties. The law determines the conditions and the modalities of the financing of political parties’. 6.3.4 The protection model To protect is to shield from injury or loss. The most extreme protection possible for any party is to declare it the only legitimate one (that was common in African oneparty systems). Short of declaring a one-party state, some nations protect certain parties by a judicious dispensation and interpretation of party law. Consequently, the protection model differs only in degree from the promotion model. Countries that follow the protection model go beyond enacting law simply to assist parties; they build a legal framework to fend off competition with existing parties. A clear example is controlling candidates’ and parties’ ability to contest elections (Janda 2005: 12). Janda (2005: 13) mentions cases of five African states where the state protects parties with constitutional provisions against ‘crossing the floor’: • In Namibia, members of the National Assembly must vacate their seats if the political party which nominated them for election informs the speaker that they are no longer members of the political party. • In Nigeria, an MP whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party loses his/her seat if he/she becomes a member of another political party before the expiry of the period for which that House was elected. • In the Seychelles, a person ceases to be a member of the National Assembly and his/her seat becomes vacant if, in the case of a proportionally elected member: (a) the political party which nominated him or her nominates another person as member in their place and notifies the speaker in writing of the new nomination; and (b) the person ceases to be a member of the political party of which he or she was a member at the time of the election. • In Sierra Leone, an MP must vacate his/her seat in Parliament if he or she ceases to be a member of the political party of which he was a member at the time of his/her election to Parliament and s/he so informs the speaker, or the speaker is so informed by the leader of that party. • In Zimbabwe, an MP’s seat becomes vacant if he or she ceases to be a member of the political party of which s/he was a member at the date of their election to Parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the speaker, declares that s/he has ceased to represent its interests in Parliament. 0 Party Structures and Internal Organization
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0 Chapter 1 Methodology
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Chapter 2 Introduction
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Chapter 3 Context
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Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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