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Fringe political parties emerge as polls draw closer
Njabulo Ncube, Financial Gazette
September 14, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200709130685.html

NOW you see them, now you don't. When newspapers or newsrooms are inundated with calls from nondescript fellows, brandishing usually badly written press statements, you do not have to be a soothsayer to know an election is imminent.

It is four months before voting begins, and the country's fringe political parties are once again emerging from hibernation that began after the last elections in 2005.

Once again, editors and journalists must live with the constant harangues of small-time political players, each desperate to have stories published on their activities - especially on the front page.

There are different varieties of parties; some come out in the open as elections approach, while others are born just before ballots are cast.

A new party, the Zimbabwe People's Party (ZPP), has joined a long list of the country's fringe political parties, announcing its arrival in a series of press advertisements.

"Fight Poverty, join the Zimbabwe People's Party (ZPP) For Genuine Democracy," reads one of its recent advertisement.

Log on to its website, and an impressive logo pops up, accompanied by a thumbs up sign, encircled with more slogans, suspiciously Macheso-like: "Zvakanaka Zvakadaro, Kuhle Kunjalo, It's good like that."

The site offers nothing more.

But ZPP's splashing of expensive advertisements has already sent tongues wagging, with the usual suspicion that the party could be a ploy by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to further split the opposition vote.

Another new party to emerge recently is the Patriotic Union of Matabeleland (PUMA), launched in Bulawayo under the theme "Nothing for Us, Without Us".

ZPP and PUMA join a club of other smaller parties, led by veteran fringe man Paul Siwela, who leads the ZAPU Federal Party, and Wurayayi Zembe of the Democratic Party.

Others in this class are the United People's Party (UPP), launched in June this year by Daniel Shumba, the businessman and former ZANU PF chairman for Masvingo province.

Shumba launched his project after becoming disenchanted with ZANU PF. He was one of six provincial chairmen suspended by the ruling party over the infamous Tsholotsho Indaba. He later resigned.

"The UPP together with all Zimbabweans will restore the vibrant and diversified economy in a democratic, law-abiding Zimbabwe. Unite with us, and together we will unite our nation," the party said in a half page colour advert on the day of its launch.

The UPP symbol shows two hands, joined together, promising to lead the country "from hopelessness to hope, from poverty to prosperity, from terror to well-being, from dictatorship to democracy."

Siwela, whose party has participated in parliamentary and presidential elections since 2000, blames the low profile of his party and other small opposition parties on both the public and private media.

"We refuse to be called a fringe political party or a fly-by-night party. This is nonsensical and a myth created by the media," Siwela told The Financial Gazette last week.

He said his ZAPU FP - which campaigns for federalism - was in talks with other "like-minded" groups to forge a united front for 2008, so as to avoid the "Kenyan Syndrome" - giving the ruling party victory by splitting the opposition vote.

"We are pushing for a broad alliance with other opposition political players, but at the moment I am not in a position to disclose their identities," he said.

There are more parties. Little known Zimbabwe Youth in Alliance (ZIYA) has dismally lost all elections since its formation on September 15, 2003.

It has courted controversy with disclosures that its youthful leader Chawaona Kanoti, a University of Zimbabwe law graduate, once worked in President Robert Mugabe's Office as an intelligence operative.

In 2005, ZIYA candidates unsuccessfully contested in Chirumhanzu, Harare and Buhera, while its leader Kanoti was trounced in the Mabvuku-Tafara senate elections in November 2005.

Then enter the United People's Movement. It has been linked to Tsholotsho independent Member of Parliament and former government spin-doctor Jonathan Moyo (MP) and former Zvishavane MP Pearson Mbalekwa.

Late last year, it threatened to change the landscape of opposition politics in Zimbabwe, proclaiming it would "rock the nation".

"Victory is certain", its advertisements proclaimed.

Its symbol was a rugged piece of rock, representing, it explained, the "rock solid foundations" of the Great Zimbabwe Monuments, the pillars of Zimbabwe's spiritual home at Njelele in Matopos, the party said.

But this flamboyant marketing has not won the parties much respect.

"It is good to have different voices, but these should be from genuine origins," said Takura Zhangazha, a political commentator.

"Small political parties should be allowed to exist but we are in a political environment that requires them now to take a back seat and join forces with a progressive opposition party with a realistic chance of delivering change," said Zhangazha.

Analysts said the political landscape in Zimbabwe makes it difficult for political parties to grow and eventually dislodge ZANU PF, a revolutionary party that has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980.

They said the ruling party, whose stiffest challenge came from the Movement for Democratic Change, which is now in disarray following its split in 2005, uses state organs such as the police, the CIO and army to fortify its hold on power.

ZANU PF has also made it difficult for smaller parties to access external funding except for the meager resources provided under the Political Parties (Finance) Act and has shut out the opposition from the public media.

And because most of the opposition parties remain in the periphery, ZANU PF has always enjoyed the lion's share of the budget.

"The promulgation of laws such as the Public Order and Security Act, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Interception of Communications Act, etc, combine to make it impossible for smaller parties to thrive," said one analyst.

"Some of the faces behind the smaller parties are also not convincing, which explains why people are not interested in them. It also appears that some of them are just out to get donor funding, which is later converted for use by individuals," added the analyst.

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