On average, parties founded until 1960 win about 20% of the seats in the last lower house election, whereas more recently formed political parties, that is, those founded until 1970 and 1980 collect, respectively, 11% and 17% of the parliamentary seats. Thus, despite the fact that
37,3 45,0 47,6 50,0 55,8 58,7 59,5 64,0 64,5 67,4 69,4 70,6 75,4 75,9 77,9 80,9 81,8 82,2 84,3 ,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 80,0 90,0 Mean = 67,1
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multiparty elections opened a window of opportunities for the establishment and development of new political parties, a large part of political competition is still structured by political parties formed before the introduction of the major political reforms towards multipartism, between the late 1980s and the early 1990s. This being said, there is also a great variability across and within countries. As Figure 3.6 displays, Botswana, Mozambique, Seychelles, Senegal and Namibia, are the most extreme cases of electoral closure. In Botswana, one of the oldest democracies in Africa, nine parliamentary multiparty elections have taken place since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The BDP, formed in 1962, has won all parliamentary elections by a landslide (gaining, on average, 82% of the parliamentary seats) leaving only a small fraction of seats to be distributed between the other competitors. Among these one finds the BNF, founded in 1962 (elected representatives in all nine elections. The best electoral result was in 1994 when the party got 13 seats), the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) founded in 1960, (elected representatives in 1969, 1974, 1979 and 1984) and finally the Botswana Independence Party (BIP), founded in 1964 (elected one representative in 1969, 1974 and 1989). In Mozambique, Frelimo (founded in 1962) and Renamo (founded in 1976) win on average 98% of the seats in lower house elections. Nevertheless, this share is not equally distributed between these two competitors. In fact, since 1994, party politics in Mozambique has been marked by an increasing dominance of Frelimo and continuous shrinking of the opposition parties, especially of Renamo. After a relative equilibrium in the 1994 and 1999 general elections, Renamo began losing its relevance both in the electoral and in the legislative arenas, suffering in addition two internal crises which led to the birth of the Partido para a Paz, Democracia e Desenvolvimento (PDD)43 and the MDM.
This combination of old political parties with one-party dominance is also observed in the Seychelles, Namibia and Tanzania, where ruler parties SPPF/PL (founded in 1978), SWAPO (founded in 1958) and CCM (f. 1977) win, on average, respectively, 81%44, 72%45 and 82% of the seats In Senegal, the two most relevant parties are the PS and the PDS, founded in 1949 and 1974, accordingly. The PS was the most voted party in the elections of 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998, whereas the PDS, leader of the Coalition Sopi46, won the 2001 and the 2007 elections. The presence of parties founded until 1960, 1970 and 1980 is also
43
Party for Peace, Democracy and Development
44 The DP (founded in 1964) receives most of the remaining seats either alone or in coalition with the SNP (founded in 1994).
45 The other parties winning parliamentary representation are the DTA (f. 1977), the National Unity Democratic Organization of Namibia (NUDO) and the Republican Party (RP) founded in 1964 and 1977, respectively. 46 SOPI “Wolof for Change” Coalition aggregates over 40 smaller parties.
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considerable (average seats gains higher than 46%) in the parliaments of Mauritius (68%), The Gambia (64%), South Africa (62%) and Cape Verde (46%).
Figure 3.6 – Average percentage of seats obtained by parties founded until 1960, 1970 and 1980
Note: average percentage of seats gained by parties founded until 1960 = 21%, for parties founded until 1970 = 11% and for parties founded until 1980 = 17%.
Ghana and Nigeria are the only cases of complete absence of historical political parties in the electoral and parliamentary arena. In the case of Ghana, President Jerry Rawlings, announced, less than a year before the 1992 elections that the ban on political parties47
, which had been imposed in 1981 would be lifted on 18th May 1992. This measure was part of his plans towards a return to civilian rule and included several measures of political liberalization: such as holding a referendum on 28th April to adopt a new Constitution and holding presidential and parliamentary elections (see IPU Parline country sheet48). In the 1992 elections, Rawlings and his NDC remained in power having been replaced in 2000 by the opposition leader John Kufuor and the NPP. The Nigerian party system, in turn, had been suspended after the military takeover led by General Sani Abacha in November 1993. In October 1995, a three-year transitional program to restore civilian rule was announced and, in
47
During the post-colonial period several political parties have emerged in Ghana: the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), the Progress Party (PP), the People's Action Party (PAP), the United Nationalist Party (UNP), and the All People's Republican Party (APRP), all of which ran for the 1969 elections; while the liberal Popular Front (PFP), the United National Convention, and the left-wing People's National Party (PNP), formed by followers of late President Kwame Nkrumah, ran for the 1979 elections.
48 http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2123_92.htm. 31 34 46 45 56 3 72 46 25 2 0,5 1 10 11 38 61 96 1 44 82 43 2 5 14 81 7 6 37 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
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September 1996, the party system which had been suspended was re-established by the Armed Forces Provisional Revolutionary Council. Yet, only parties approved by the government were entitled to nominate candidates to public office. In the 1999 parliamentary poll, three parties, namely the PDP, the AD and the APP, fielded candidates for the 360 House of Representatives seats and 109 Senate seats.
In Benin, the Parti de la Révolution Populaire du Bénin (PRPB) was the only legally recognized political organization until 1990, when Mathiéu Kérékou convened the National Conference of Active Forces to start the process of democratic transition. The PRPB was dissolved before the first parliamentary election in 1991 but the Parti Communiste du Bénin (PCB)49 a clandestine party, active since 1977, was able to stand for elections and to win 1,2% and 7,2% of the seats in 1991 and 1995, respectively. Finally, the party systems of Guinea- Bissau, Malawi and Sao Tome and Principe are the ones offering wider possibilities for political parties founded after 1980. In fact, in these parliaments more than half of the seats are secured by political parties formed in the 1990s.