| Political parties must also play by the rules | Send to a friend |
| Tuesday, 27 July 2010 22:07 |
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National Election Commission (NEC) chairman Lewis Makame is surprised that the parties, which helped to formulate the code to govern elections, are dragging their feet on signing up for it. Interestingly, they are disputing some of the provisions, citing this as the reason for their refusal to endorse the document. The signing of the code is a simple procedural matter meant to help create an environment to conduct a free and peaceful poll. Ironically, this is an issue the opposition has been agitating for all along. The code prohibits parties, their candidates and supporters from engaging in violence, using foul language and carrying weapons during the election campaigns, as a means to curb violence. And if we may ask, what has gone wrong with these provisions, which the parties drew up in the first place? The opposition leaders who failed to attend last Monday’s signing ceremony, say they were either not invited by the NEC or received the invitation too late. We find these excuses rather flimsy. Having been involved in the code’s formulation, shouldn’t they have been monitoring its progress? Political parties are a basic institution of democratisation from the grassroots. Before demanding transparency and accountability at the national level, the parties must first put their house in order. It is important, for instance, that the parties are well-organised with proper secretariats and branches. If this were the case, then the NEC invitation letters should have been delivered to those secretariats. We doubt that all the opposition parties have well-organised secretariats and active party branches countrywide. Interestingly, only the smaller opposition parties have already signed the code of conduct. And threatened with inclusion are the main opposition parties CUF and Chadema. The parties have no choice but to operate according to the rules and stop whining even when their shortcomings are pointed out. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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