Regional focused political parties doomed - analysts

THE mushrooming of more opposition political parties in Zimbabwe ahead of next year's general elections is not adding any value to people, but are just projects of individuals trying to push their own selfish agendas, political analysts have said.

Zimbabwe has for past three years witnessed the mushrooming of new political parties, all claiming to have the people in mind and promising to topple the revolutionary Zanu-PF party.

New political parties that have been formed in the country since the 2013 general elections include the Tendai Biti-led People's Democratic Party which was formed by MDC-T members who were disappointed by the party's dismal performance in the watershed polls and called for a leadership renewal.

That however, resulted in their expulsion from the party and subsequent formation of their own political outfit. The other new political parties that have emerged since the last elections include the National Constitutional Assembly, Mthwakazi Republic Party, Renewal for Democrats of Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe People First, led by former Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru.

Of late two more political parties have been formed and these are the Zimbabwe Partnership for Prosperity led by little known Mr Blessing Kasiyamhuru, and the Alliance for National Salvation led by former National Healing, Reconciliation and Reintegration Minister Mr Moses Mzila-Ndlovu. Both parties have said they would contest the 2018 plebiscite.

With elections still about 17 months away, it would not be surprising to have more political parties being formed. What this means is that over 20 political parties would be contesting against Zanu-PF, come 2018, whether as part of the proposed "grand coalition" of opposition parties, which is also not without problems, or as standalone entities.

But political observers told the Sunday News Zimbabweans should not read much into the mushrooming groupings which are founded on weak foundations. The analysts said the political parties were being informed by numerous factors, some of them being failure by politicians to resolve issues and find one another.

"While in a democracy diversity and plurality are celebrated, in certain instances, like in the issue at hand (Zimbabwean scenario), plurality just for its sake could be counterproductive," said political analyst, Mr Thomas Sithole.

"Some political parties are seasonal just like rain and only emerge just before elections and disappear thereafter. This does not help Zimbabwe and the citizens."

He challenged Zimbabweans to be vigilant when they go to polls next year by looking beyond just the individuals' personalities while also focusing on such issues as ideology, manifesto, capacity and integrity of politicians, programmes of the party in question and other related factors.

Another political analyst, Mr Anglistone Sibanda said the formation of new political parties was ill-timed and history has shown that they rarely perform well. Mr Sibanda said learning from the dismal performance of ZAPU and the Welshman Ncube-led MDC in the 2013 polls, chances of some new parties attracting a significant number of votes were close to none.

Mr Zibusiso Ndlovu, also political commentator, said while some new parties would attract followers as is common with any party that comes on board, those with with a regional focus were likely to suffer in the long run.

"There have been efforts to cut off Matabeleland and Midlands from the rest of the country but these have yielded little attention from the people as it is based on tribalism and not influence of power," he said.

"Let's think of the radical Mthwakazi republic ideology. Who in the world can buy into the ideology? We need politics from the people by the people."