44 parties want your vote, but…

They cheat, scramble for votes, hijack multimillion kwacha business contracts and seemingly nest above the law. They are feared and distrusted by the majority of Malawians who alternatively call politics a dirty game.

“History shows they are the worst in terms of transparency and accountability,” said Happy Kayuni, an associate professor based at Chancellor College, of political parties amid plans to start collecting membership fees from their sympathisers.

If there are organisations that are “demonised, despised and are wished to be wiped away”, they are political parties.

Former minister of Justice Ralph Kasambara, founder of Congress of Democrats, passed this verdict in December last year amid strides towards strengthening of the Political Party Act in December last year.

Like Kasambara implored, political parties need to be better organised because they are the lifeblood of democracy. However, daily reports of corruption, secrecy and power struggles portray politics as survival of the filthiest.

To Mbayani resident Emmanuel Mpando and other proponents of rule of law, it is time the country had strict laws to regulate the formation, financing and conduct of political parties with the regulatory codes they love to impose on the citizenry.

“Transparency and accountability are pillars of democracy, but I wonder why politicians conduct themselves as untouchable. Unfortunately, there are too many in the country and registering parties seems to be big business,” said Mpando, 42.

Interviewed at the ground floor of the building housing the registrar of political parties’ office in Blantyre, the man confessed losing count of political parties in the country and could only cite Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), United Democratic Front (UDF), Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the ruling People’s Party (PP).

But a spiralling staircase to the registrar’s office transports curious minds to generous truths. Since the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1993, the office has registered 50 parties. Six of them, including Brown Mpinganjira’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA), have been deregistered since. Only 44 are still operational.(See list of registered parties here).

Pluralism

Split by chronic infighting, Alliance for Democracy (Aford) is the firstborn in democratic Malawi—officially consigning MCP, whose 31-year one-party rule ended with the birth of multiparty politics, to position six. Apparently, the longest serving party was re-registered much later than UDF, United Front for Multiparty Democracy (UFMD), Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) and Malawi National Democratic Party (MNDP).

From the list, sprawling plurality is glaring. There are the likes of Hetherwick Ntaba’s National Congress for Democracy (NCD), Gwanda Chakuamba’s Republican Party and Uladi Mussa’s Maravi Peoples Party (MPP) which survived unceremonious deregistration due to their founders’ penchant for government appointments.

There are also such idle oldies with negligible or no membership as the Congress for Second Republic (CSR), UFMD and MDP. Also on the ‘shortlist’ are unimaginative names such as Forum Party and many others which have never contested for presidency in their lifetime.

More parties present a diversity of choices for voters, the change Malawians wanted in 1993. However, political analyst Blessings Chinsinga says having over 40 parties is unrealistic for Malawi.

Early this year, the associate professor based at Chancellor College argued: “Most parties are founded with no objective and offer no solution to people’s problems. Small parties are formed by parties because big parties have failed to manage internal politics.”

He reckoned the majority of them are characterised by an insignificant following, unclear manifestoes and identical values.

Precisely, the bitter beginnings of small parties are clearly mirrored by UDF and its offshoots, United Party (UP) and NDA. In the background dossier for UP in 1999, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, who also co-found DPP during his presidency in 2005, admitted quitting then ruling UDF due to its errors in judgement, strategy and management, which left politicians getting richer while the poor were getting poorer.

Likewise, manifestoes of Mpinganjira’s NDA attack UDF for worsening corruption, hunger and poverty.

The newest four

Before the newest four—Rejoice Kingdom Party, Umodzi Party, United Independence Party and ANP—were registered, commentators were already saying enough is enough.

Four months ago, Mzuzu Diocese’s Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) secretary Arnold Msimuko cautioned: “Politicians should not abuse their rights to form and register parties.”

The decried abuse is telling when it comes to party constitutions, manifestoes and founding committees. When the nation asked for these documents, assistant registrar Joseph Chimtolo said the bulk can only be supplied by the parties themselves because they are confidential documents by law.

However, the custodian of the register of parties made a worrisome confession: “There are no substantial differences and surprises in the constitutions and manifestoes of the 44 registered parties. The documents are framed by lawyers from the same school of thought.

“There are lawyers who would come up with better constitutions, rules and regulations, but the documents end up being just mere documents.”

Chimtolo also admitted that there are some politicians whose names appear on up to four parties. The law only allows one to belong to one party, requiring that any change of allegiance be communicated to the registrar before seven days elapse. The assistant registrar estimates that only one in 10 comply with the requirement.

Deregistration of parties

In December last year, Nation on Sunday conducted an opinion poll on Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) recommendation that any party which does not hold a convention every four years or contest in general elections should be deregistered.

The outcome? An overwhelming majority (548 out of 745 Malawians who took part in the poll) supported the notion that briefcase parties should be scraped off.

Political Index

asked the registrar, how many parties would survive the test and he declared: “If you checked with the Malawi Electoral Commission, about 25 would be gone.”

However, the assistant registrar says the action would be costly for the underfunded office of the registrar which prioritises income-generating activities such as issuance of business licences, birth certificates and marriage certificates which attract hundreds of people every day. He reckons the office cannot apply stringent laws to get rid of idlers because it was established to register the parties. Being a government institution under the Ministry of Justice, the office also stands to be accused of being a ruling party’s bulldog if it acted so high-handedly.

Checks and balances

The stated dilemma spectacularly shows the lack of a regulatory framework due to shortfalls of the Political Parties Act. Since last year, CMD has been pushing for the amendment of the law to ensure that parties with more than one MP get government funding. For accountability’s sake, the amendment requires parties that receive at least K1 million (about $2 500) from an individual or K2 million (about $5 000) from organisations to declare the amount and source to the registrar within 30 days.

If passed, the proposed law will also ensure deregistration of any party that fails to hold a convention every four years or fails to field candidates in general elections, which take place every five years.

The amendment envisages strengthening checks and balances because the current law does not offers guidance to political parties, said CMD executive director Kizito Tenthani during consultation meetings early this year.

He explained: “The current Act is just for registration, not regulation.”

The absence of checks and balances signal a deeper problem at a time parties require their members to contribute to their finances and an opinion is gaining sway that the country’s democracy is built on a shaky foundations.

In politics, accountability is everything. Former vice-president Justin Malewezi underscored this basic principle of democracy when he declared that the problem is that “we used democracy just to change government” from one-party rule to democracy.

“It is the same old people running the affairs,” said Malewezi, who deputised Bakili Muluzi between 1994 and 2004, arguing: “The problem is that we created democracy without creating democrats.”

The deep-rooted culture of impunity earned the country a zero-mark two years ago. A 2011 study by Global Integrity, a worldwide good governance watchdog, revealed that political finance laws are virtually absent in the country.

The side-effects are there for all to see. Like identical twins, political parties and top-tier politicians keep getting richer while Malawians languish in poverty, cursing democratic rule as ‘wasted years’.