Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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Country Constitutional crisis and leadership succession crisis Togo Army subverted the constitution and installed Faure Gnassingbe as president of Togo just hours after the death (on 5 February 2005) of his father, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who had ruled for 38 years Uganda President Museveni ruled since 1986 under the no-party democracy banner. The constitutional amendment meant the return of multiparty democracy to Uganda. However, a constitutional crisis was sparked by an amendment that secured President Museveni a third term following the March 2006 elections Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy Constitutional provision Speaker of Parliament should have been appointed interim president according to the constitution Two terms of office whereby President Museveni should not have contested the March 2006 elections Zimbabwe The March 2002 elections were rigged, according to some election observers Election results Consequences Faure Gnassingbe resigned due to internal and external pressures and ran for president, and won the April 2005 elections. Current president of Togo President Museveni won the elections, amid opposition protests and accusations of electoral fraud. However, the election was declared free and fair by African and non-African observers President Robert Mugabe won the elections and continued as the only president Zimbabwe has known since 198 Scores of people lost their lives in protests against the government. Togo was boycotted by major donors. On 21 August 2006, government and opposition signed an agreement on political reforms Tarnished the image of President Museveni, known to some Western government as part of the ‘new breed politicians’. Strained relationship with donors and hardened opposition resolve Intensified social political tension, including intimidation of the opposition, many people of European or African origin lost their property or lives Source: Complied from various sources, notably daily and weekly magazines and newspapers. 5.2.4 The representation of women and political party leadership As more extensive and systematic material on women’s participation in politics will be presented in International IDEA’s sub-Regional Reports for Southern, East and West Africa, we offer here a general comparative understanding of the position of women in African politics.
International Idea The UNDP Human Development Report (2006) provides some interesting statistics which are helpful in linking the general low ranking of African countries in all aspects of the Gender-related Human Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). As a reminder, the GDI is concerned with comparing female and male in respect to life expectancy at birth, adult literacy, combined gross enrolment for primary, secondary and tertiary schools, and estimated earned income. The GEM refers to seats in parliament held by women, female, senior officials and managers, and their earnings as compared to estimated male earned income. The Human Development Report (UNDP 2006: 366) shows that, out of 136 countries, African countries occupied 30 out of the lowest 33 positions on the GDI. The only non-Africa countries counted among the lowest 30 are Pakistan, Nepal and Yemen. In respect to the Gender Empowerment Measure, the Human Development Report (2006: 369–70) shows that Africa again occupies the bottom 33 ranking positions, out of 177 countries. (Africa, however, includes some countries with the highest proportion of women legislators in the world. In other words, the representation of women in parliament is not a conclusive measure of women’s empowerment across other areas, as senior officials and managers, or professional and technical workers, or their earned income relative to that of men.) It is therefore not difficult to establish the association between the position of women vis-à-vis the GDI and the GEM and their poor representation in high positions in African political parties. There is no woman president or chairperson of any African political party, although there are a handful of women speakers of parliament and one woman president (President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia). Noting that the number of women voters is larger than the number of men voters (see e.g. López Pintor and Gratschew 2002: 95–101), it is evident that across the board increasing women’s representation in politics and public life cannot be achieved by electoral system reform alone. The African experience has shown that a host of other instruments is equally important—constitutional and legal instruments as well as party self-disciplining measures. In the following section of this report, we have drawn heavily on International IDEA’s 2004 book entitled The Implementation of Quotas: African Experiences, with special reference to the political representation of women. Three chapters of the book stand out as exemplary contributions to the debate. These are Aili Mari Tripp on ‘The Changing Face of Africa’s Legislatures: Women and Quotas’; Colleen Lowe Morna, ‘Beyond Numbers: Quotas in Practice’; and Julie Ballington, ‘Conclusion: Women’s Political Participation and Quotas in Africa’. Because the reader can consult these Party Structures and Internal Organization
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Besides this report on political pa
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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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3.1 The internal context 3.1.1 Soci
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3.2 The external context Political
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Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty

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