The Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has called on political parties to democratize internally and accommodate dissenting views within their rank and file.
FODEP president Stanley Mhango says political parties should pursue the path of internal and inter-party democracy for the country to consolidate its democratic dispensation.
Mr. Mhango, in a statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka today, pointed out that resignations, particularly of Members of Parliament, plunged the country into an expensive process of holding a by-election.
He said this should be avoided at all cost because money meant for development is diverted to fulfill a constitutional mandate of holding the by-election within the stipulated time-frame.
Mr. Mhango said this could have been avoided if the Zambian electoral system allowed a runner-up during an election to assume office in an event of a vacancy in the seat to avoid costly by-elections.
He said it is for this reason that FODEP is calling for the urgent reform of the electoral system in the country before the 2011 tripartite elections.
Mr. Mhango said the Proportional Representation Electoral System could be ideal for the Zambian scenario.
His comments come in the wake of the resignation of former defence minister from his ministerial and National Executive Committee (NEC) party positions and the decision by Patriotic Front (PF) Kasama Central Member of Parliament Dr Xavier Chishimba to relinquish his position as Member of Parliament by July 27, 2009.
Political analysts estimate the cost of a by-election to be in the region of K4 billion.
ZANIS
Even in FODEP there should be democracy and elections
Democracy is not for most of us. It is failing in most countries. You have now seen that the holding of elections has become pointless because even if the incurmbernt loses, they still go on: Zimbabwe, Kenya are some of the examples.
Democracy is expensive. When you accept democracy you also accept the expense. The idea of allowing the runnerup is total nonsense because it takes away the people’s right to choose leaders.
Problem is that the MMD will always want lesser persons to lead the opposition. EG they have been sponsoring certain individuals to force PF to call a convetion so that their nemisses called Cobra Michael Chilufya Sata can be removed as a threat(mind you I dont support Sata). But sponsoring hooliganism in other parties is not part of the democracy we are talking about. By the way why dont we change of leaders in FODEP?
Its a pity whatever sense the FODEP man is taking about contains alot of grey matter but who will listen from him. It will be dismissed as trash. The political landscape is very uneven and rough. Looking at what is going on in MMD circles the ruling party is in full support of sole candidate at their next convention. So we are going back to dictatorship disguised as democracy. MMD is taking the character UNIP at very fast and dangerous rate unheard of in the world. We are back to old days where Presidency was one man standing against a hyna or frog. This time its modified where sponsored spokemen sing endorsement by all provinces as sole candidate. They systematically leave other positions contestable coz personal benefits. Has FODEP CEO job bin advertised to all at one time or not ?
With politicts of poverty, it is all about survival. Some people can do anything to attain to or retain their political office. It’s diificult for democracy to flourish in such an environment. Politicians need to be able to have a life outside politics. If they can work or earn a living from other means, they will do anything, even behave foolishly or break the law in order to have food. Shamelessly, a lot of this happens in Zambia.