Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy
The study consisted of three questionnaires. The first was about the socio-political
and economic environment in which the parties function and about how free or
restricted the parties are in carrying out their political and electoral activities in
the respective countries. The second questionnaire dealt with the legal provisions
that regulate parties. These include the founding of parties, their registration and
internal functioning, the rules and regulations for contesting elections, the conduct
of election campaigns and the agencies that monitor the conduct of parties. This
was done mainly by desk research. Sources of information on the country context
and external regulations included constitutions, legislative acts and orders passed
by the executive branch; rules, regulations, codes and orders of the election
commissions; and judgements of the highest courts in the respective countries.
Official statistical reports, reports of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Freedom House Index, the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report, and Transparency
International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, among other sources, were used for
relevant information.
The third questionnaire constituted an in-depth analysis of the organizational
structures of the parties and the way in which the parties actually function. Information
was collected through face-to-face interviews with the leaders of various parties. In
most cases, five leaders and party officials from each party were interviewed. Each
interview took at least one hour and some required longer. Sometimes it required more
than one sitting with a leader or official. In choosing the representatives for parties
for the interviews, care was taken to interview at least one of the top party leaders, a
people’s representative in legislative bodies, preferably at the national level, a woman
leader and a youth leader. Wherever the treasurer of a party was available, he or she
was interviewed. Thus, the account of the internal functioning of parties is based
primarily on the information and responses of the party leaders. What is attempted
is to develop a self-portrait of parties as presented by party leaders themselves.
Before the interviews with individual leaders were conducted, the parties were
informed about the research project and provided with an overview of the research.
The meetings with leaders were arranged by prior appointment. Most of the party
leaders were cooperative and willing to spare time. Busy as they were with other
pressing matters, some were not able to spend sufficient time to discuss the questions
in depth, and some found that the questionnaire was taking more time than they
were willing to give (two or three interview sessions were required for some leaders).
Some were reticent and unwilling to respond in detail to some questions with which
they felt uncomfortable, such as those concerning the election of leaders within the
party, and descriptions of internal party structures and the selection of candidates.
For some questions, such as those concerning party income, funding and election