Uneven distribution of political finance unhealthy for democracy

Kadoma: “We remain deeply concerned by the lack of progress globally on effectively regulating the flow of large sums of private money unto the elections process in many countries. Political financing remains the number one corruption risk around the world, and absent meaningful reforms will continue to hinder many other open government and transparency initiative” (Nathaniel Heller, Global Integrity Executive Director, 2011).  It is in this context that the ZESN facilitated the holding of a roundtable in Kadoma last month to discuss issues around political parties’ finances, as limited regulation on political parties’ finances would threaten the legitimacy of the democratic processes and practices.

Addressing delegates at the meeting attended by different political parties, civil society organizations and academia, the ZESN’s National director Rindai Chipfunde-Vava said, candidates and political parties campaign finances needs to be regulated in terms of (i) limits, (ii) sources of funding and (iii) expenditure.    

“While recognizing that democracy is priceless, its functioning does have a price, and the use of economic resources is an essential element for democratic competence. The money in politics is capable of introducing distortions if there is unequal distribution, if the use of funds is not regulated, it can threaten the legitimacy of the democratic processes and practices,” said Chipfunde-Vava at the roundtable meeting.

Chipfunde-Vava also added that political parties campaigning in an election need funding for two purposes namely for institutional support and money for campaigning in the election.

In agreement, the ZESN chairperson, Rev. Dr Solmon Zwana added that, “Democracy cannot function effectively unless political parties have enough money to carry out their activities and enough members willing to perform them. The relationship between money and politics has come to be one of the great problems of democratic government and that healthy political life is not possible as long as the use of money is unrestrained,” said Dr Zwana.

In Zimbabwe, the Political Parties (Finance) Act [Chapter 2:11] of 2001 makes it illegal for parties to receive foreign funding; hence they have limited avenues to source funds for their activities and this therefore create opaqueness in terms of how parties source their funding.

In light of this, the major political parties in Zimbabwe depend solely on methods such as membership dues, sale of merchandise and donations. However the Director of ZESN explained that, normally these methods would not raise much funding needed for political parties to survive since these methods might be insignificant and are normally considered “small.” That leaves political parties to depend on other methods such as: kickbacks, returns on undeclared business investments, use and abuse of state resources, illicit sources, foreign donations, anonymous sources, and donations.

ZESN is therefore advocating for the creation of an environment that provide women and men with skills to raise money, campaign, and build name recognition. Chipfunde-Vava suggested that funding quotas for women would help women candidates to contest in elections. “There must also be clear political parties finance regulations which include mandatory limits, declaration of sources and campaign duration or expenditure on political parties funding. In addition, there is also need to ensure that there is transparency and proper enforcement mechanisms of the regulations,” added Chipfunde-Vava.