Sunday, January 15, 2012

Constitution to ensure fair and gender balanced representation



Koki Muli

Our Constitution is supposed to guide us like a lighthouse so that we are not lost or so that we do not crush into rocks or into even the lighthouse. Yet, we still have serious problems of keeping to deadlines and have in many occasions failed to remain focused on the essential priorities in the implementation of the Constitution.
 We missed the deadline and opportunity to, at the earliest opportunity reform our political parties’ management and internal democratic processes. The panel to interview the Registrar of political parties was time barred so it was not constituted. We now have an acting Registrar. Politicians and political parties seem to be untouchables; breaking the law and enjoying proceeds of impunity; and getting away with criminal acts.
There is so much that the Registrar is supposed to accomplish before the General Election, that I wonder whether the principals and Parliament realise that the delay to appoint a Registrar is severely hurting our nascent democracy.
Irreparably. Political parties are still behaving like private members clubs instead of public institutions of democracy; and getting away with it. Parties continue to be "owned" by individuals who care less about Political Parties Act’s (PPA) requirements that they should open up to the public, recruit nationally, conduct elections and become genuine public institutions of governance and democracy. Most importantly, political parties require guidance to prepare essential documents such as constitutions, nomination rules, and coalition and merger instruments and file them with the Registrar.
Article 23 of the Political Parties Act establishes the Political Parties Fund, which shall be administered by the Registrar. The same registrar, who is yet to be appointed. Article 24 provides for the sources of this fund; a minimum of 0.3 per cent is supposed to come from revenue collected by the national government as may be provided by Parliament; and from other lawful contributions and donations.
Political parties will be publicly funded when the law of political funding is finally in place, hopefully sometime before the next elections. Article 25 distributes 95 per cent of the fund proportionate to the total number of votes secured by each political party in the forthcoming General Election; and 5 per cent for administration expenses of the fund.
Political parties which do not secure at least five percent of the total number of votes; or whose more than two-thirds of its registered office bearers are of the same gender; will not get any money from this fund.
The total number of votes secured by a political party shall be computed by adding the total number of votes obtained in the General Election by a political party in the election for the President, Members of Parliament, county governors and members of county assemblies. The basis for calibration is based upon the type of proportional representation, which requires tabulation of total number of votes cast in an election.
This is contrary to our Constitution, which requires allocation of seats proportionate to the total of seats a party secures in the houses of representatives. This kind of aggregation will bring serious confusion because many parties may receive high percentage of votes cast during an election; yet get fewer elected representatives. These parties, with fewer elected representatives, will be entitled to more public funding than parties with more elected representatives.
Also, this provision should have required that a party whose elected representatives are more than two-thirds of any gender should not be eligible to receive public funding. This provision and our parties’ penchant for "freebies" would ensure our elected representation is fair and gender balanced and then we would have no reason to amend the Constitution to address our traditional exclusion of women in elective and appointive positions.
The writer is an elections and constitutional law expert and lecturer, South Eastern University College

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