Chadema, smaller parties and the unfairness of the rules of the game

Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe held a press conference to address the issue of their presidential candidate being banned for seven days to hold election campaigns. He touched on many issues but what was central to his message and that of his party was the unfairness of the political playing field. That, while as a party they disagreed with the sanction imposed on their presidential candidate, they would abide by it.

He also spoke of the reasons which would lead to hell breaking loose and they were all about unfairness in how the rules will be implemented.

Chairman Mbowe’s theme and that of Chadema was about unfairness, injustices and uneven political playing field. Of the things he pointed out as problematic in the process through which their presidential candidate was sanctioned had to do with some of the political parties which participated in the voting process. He lamented the role of smaller opposition parties and what he considered as these parties being nothing but some sort of Trojan horses, used by the ruling party CCM to sustain its longevity in power.

He gave examples of his party, Chadema being told that their presidential candidate cannot hold rallies in different places because some other smaller party is scheduled to be there. To him this was unreasonable because these smaller parties have not held any meaningful election campaigns as such they were just hogging the political space, denying their presidential candidate who is “supported by millions” to reach these supporters.

The law can be a funny thing, full of ironies just like life.

Take the Westphalian treaty which among other things gave us the nation-states in their current forms. One of its principles is the “equality” of all nation-states. However, this is just impossible and has never come to pass whether in law, theory or practice. Regardless of such contradictions, where some are more equal than others, this notion of “equality” of all nation-states confers both internal and external sovereignty of states in the international system.

Back to our political parties; Chadema was registered just like these other smaller parties which even those who passionately follow our politics will struggle to remember their names. Regardless of whether they have a small following or not, they exist like registered political parties. Chadema participated in drawing the timetable for election campaigns used by all political parties. It is not among the responsibilities of the electoral body to force these smaller parties to hold their election campaigns.

Chadema as a political party is one of the beneficiaries of the current political rules. Our current political setting of the first past the post entitles winners to, among other things, huge financial windfalls for parties which fulfil certain legal criteria. This has allowed parties which receive government subventions to have platforms which smaller parties can only dream about. Smaller parties do not have the financial resources to hold rallies across the country like Chadema or CCM. They end up nothing more than brief case parties but at the same time they have not lost legal qualifications as political parties.

The current political setting which is dominated by few political parties hijacking the political agenda regardless of what the rest of the smaller political parties want or even what the rest of the country want or need. Throughout the world, this system of first past the post leads to only a few political parties surviving, mostly two or three. Eventually this political system will drive smaller parties which are on the fringe of the political fray into oblivion.

In a different political setting, say, proportional representation then these smaller parties would have the possibility of access to state institutions like parliament or even make it to the government as junior partners in a ruling coalition. They would be entitled to some financial gains as well.

The role of smaller parties in our political experiments will always be debated. In any case, their precarious existence is courtesy of the rules in place where only winners are assured of a place on the dinner table.

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Mr Mwakibete is a socio-polit-ical commentator and analyst based in Dar es Salaam