New political parties mushroom as March election nears

By Lance Guma
17 January 2008

With elections about 6 weeks away the number of political parties mushrooming across the country continues to grow. In a week that saw intense speculation over a new party to be led by former finance minister Simba Makoni, another political party in Gweru has been formed. Former town councillor Ruyedzo Mutizwa is reported to have formed the People’s Democratic Party and wants to contest the presidential election. Speaking to journalists on Wednesday Mutizwa spoke of the need to put in place an interim administration to usher in a new constitution to level the electoral playing field.

Not much is known about Mutizwa except that he contested as an independent candidate in the 2000 parliamentary elections before losing with 1,019 votes to MDC MP Timothy Mukahlera’s 12,172 votes. His position as a councillor was won on a Zanu PF ticket. Mutizwa briefly joined the Mutambara MDC as a publicity secretary in the Gweru Urban district and has now jumped ship to run his own party. Another party in the fray is the Zimbabwe People’s Democratic Party, led by the relatively unknown Isabel Madangure. Despite many people not being familiar with Madungure’s party she insists it was formed in 1991 and has taken part in several elections since.

Last year former prosecutor Levison Chikafu decided to form the Liberal Democratic Party after falling out with Ministers Patrick Chinamasa and Didymus Mutasa. After pursuing the two ministers over a case involving political violence and the obstruction of justice, Chikafu found himself in police custody, facing trumped up corruption charges. He was released after a week. When he was cleared of the charges towards the end of the year he then joined the political arena. ‘We are excited about the reception we are getting from Zimbabweans from all walks of life,’ he told journalists at the time. ‘The message we are getting is that there is room for more players on the political playground.’

All the new parties have sparked suspicion over the possible involvement of Zanu PF in sponsoring the projects to create confusion. Analysts warn these parties will come in handy should the main opposition decide to boycott the polls and Mugabe’s regime needs a political contest to claim legitimacy. A commentary on one website urged Zimbabweans ‘to seriously question backyard parties that sprout overnight on the eve of a major election.’ A common denominator with all these small parties is that they have no chance of winning anything, yet they persist with grand campaigns that offer people false hope.