Will regulating political parties lead to better democracy?

Politics is about money and power, not necessarily the pursuance of the common good.

When done in good faith, party regulation is meant to promote transparency and democratic accountability to the public, curb corrupt practices and provide for penalties for breach of the regulations.

The question is; does good faith exist when it comes to seeking political power?

I contend that politics in Africa is still a dirty game where transparency and public accountability are not a priority. Because of this, the regulation of funding of political parties will remain an ideal that is unlikely to be achieved in the short term, even if there are regulatory laws in place.

Individuals and corporates support political parties because of what they anticipate to benefit from them once they are in power. This funding is largely determined by what a political party stands for. However, experience has shown us despite what political party may state as its intended objectives, the exercise of power is a completely different ball game compared to electioneering. The majority of political parties in Africa have been unable to deliver that which they have promised.

It is my opinion that politics is hardly a fair game that can be effectively regulated and where such regulation exists, we have not seen any evidence of transparency and accountability by the political parties. They continue to be secretive and clandestine in the way they operate particularly when it comes to finances. I think this is so because funding is indeed a competitive advantage for any political party and there will continue to be a tendency for keeping that information private.

In Zimbabwe the separation of the state machinery from the ruling political party continues to be a challenge and this means that the use of public funds by the ruling party will continue to be opaque and secretive as we have experienced. Even where funding is ‘regulated’ by the Political Parties Finance Act, will regulating funding of political parties instill a sense of ‘public accountability’? I doubt that.

Emerging political parties need funding to survive and grow but we continue to see proposals that promote their funding by the public only once they have achieved a certain threshold. This means that they are unable to access funding when they need it most at establishment phase. The barriers to entry for new entrants will therefore continue to limit the democratic space.

Yes democracy in Africa needs to be deepened through the promotion of multi party systems. However their funding and how they manage their affairs need not be in the public domain. Freedom of expression and association ceases to be freedom once there is a regulatory body that seeks to control how citizens express their freedom and how they organize themselves into political parties.

We must never ignore the fact that: politics is about money and power, not necessarily the pursuance of the common good.

By Vince Musewe