A ‘tradition’ with a distinct one-party era flavour in a multiparty setting

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, speaking during a training session for ministers and their deputies in Dodoma, told those in attendance that come 2025, CCM will present President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s name to the people and not anyone else’s. He urged those in attendance to be spokespersons for what the government under this president has achieved. This is not surprising, it is not new. In the past, second terms were described as the minutes of the second half of a football match. Ministers are busy building their own political images depending on the political wind of the times.

It is part of the so-called CCM’s ‘tradition’.

In its previous life, CCM had leftist-leanings, where power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of individuals-elites. Members who muddy the waters or attempt to do so are frowned upon. While the party’s constitutional arrangement gives a chance to anyone to challenge the incumbent that is far easier said than done. Those posing serious political threats are expelled, threatened, cajoled or enticed into accepting anything else other than the top job.

It has always been this way in the multiparty era.

This choreographed chaos has always led to uneasy outcomes with calls for unity being more of a formality than a realistic expectation that all will be well. The party’s needs (or at least those of the dominant factions within it) are paramount to those of the country; a candidate may be good for the party’s survival but not necessarily a good bet for the country as a whole.

This ‘tradition’ while allowing participation of rank and file members during primaries, is in no way controlled or even influenced by their choices. As one former party official put it, the outcome of intra-party primaries are not a deciding factor in picking the party’s candidates but merely suggestions. This is the reason why Dodoma is considered a political graveyard to so many political journeys; to so many political dreams.

The process of picking a candidate, especially for the presidency is always opaque with the final choice being the outcome of deals made behind closed doors. As such every individual who rises to the top is protected by the party’s machinery to prevent serious challengers. Those who find faults from within point elsewhere but the top for whatever failings. It is the appointed officials who are at fault, not the president who appointed them when things go south.

For some reasons, opposition parties in the country play under the same script. Any contenders for the throne within their parties, threatening the accepted party leader are quickly shown the exit door through messy political divorces if they do not submit. They have also come to doubt the outcome of some of their intra-party primaries, claiming that ‘weak’ candidates may win these contests only to be soundly defeated during elections. That, they are impostors.

Whether it is CCM or the opposition, not a single party allows any spontaneity at the top. Opposition parties have shown an unmatched willingness to accept high-flying politicians decamping from CCM, who come without knowing much about their new political homes. Rank and file members spend decades into political oblivion. Newcomers have name recognition and that places them light years away from the rest of the members.

Elites know better.

The justification for these opaque political processes are the same; stability of the party comes first. Allowing dark horses and political upstarts to rise out of nowhere and upstage elites is considered dangerous; a political anathema.

It is ironic that party members are considered vital when it comes to voting during country-wide elections or by-elections but are not trusted to pick the right candidates within intra-party election processes.

The political space is closed to so many including the voters who have to stamp their approval on the choices presented before them.

It is a political ‘tradition’ with a distinct one-party era flavour in a multiparty setting. However, with all the political migration and inter-marriages, which might have contributed to the current reality, could as well play a role in changing the rules to better reflect their own political journeys and a changing political culture.