The essence of a political party

Albert Nhamoyebonde
What many people may not be aware of is how a political party is different from a protest movement.
A political party is defined by its adherents, who sacrifice their time for the cause of the party and its ideology, whereas a movement has no core values that bind its participants together except relying on mob psychology.

There are many examples of these protest movements, the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA, to protest wealth being concentrated in one percent of the people while 99 percent are poor, and Solidarity in Poland, which never won an election.

In Zimbabwe, many opposition parties were formed to protest against the ruling party’s policies that they deemed were responsible for workers losing their jobs. It was a protest movement against the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme that opened the economy to market forces.

There was no ideology to this movement except to protest against job losses.
When the ruling party stabilised the economy by introducing the multi-currency system and embarked on the indigenisation and empowerment programme, the protest movements had no answer or any cause to rally people to their cause.

The land reform programme that invited sanctions would not have appealed to the electorate alone without the indigenisation and empowerment policies.

One aspect about a political party with an ideology is that its membership is well organised, in the case of Zanu-PF, by its cell structure, where 50 members constitute a cell with 100 making a branch. When it came to register as voters, each cell made sure that its members were registered way before the new constitution was adopted.

Not only that, each member has a membership card in which a subscription fee is recorded every month.
Each membership number on the card is computerised. When members voted in the referendum, the party knew how many of its members went to vote and whether they were registered to vote in the forthcoming harmonised elections.

There are many people who talk too much about belonging to the opposition movements. In essence, these supporters of the opposition do not even carry any membership cards nor do they contribute every month to their movement any subscription fees.

This is the difference with a properly constituted party. Another aspect that many people over looked was the decision by Zanu-PF to allow every card carrying member, with up to date subscription fees, to vote in the primary elections to choose their candidates to contest in the harmonised elections.

This made it possible for the party to gauge the preparedness of its supporters to vote in general elections.
Therefore, there were many elements that Zanu-PF put into motion to prepare for the recently concluded polls. Firstly, after the 2008 elections, the party made sure that its members were registered as voters.

Secondly, the party went on a restructuring programme, to make sure that all members belonged to cells of 50 members each and branches of 100 members.

Thirdly, the party made sure that its membership was galvanised to vote in the referendum and the primary elections. The party was in an election mode from 2008 until July 31, 2013.

With all these stages in place, Zanu-PF knew to what extent its membership was prepared for elections rather than wait to register its members as voters, one month before the harmonised elections.

There are simple things to learn about being prepared for general elections. A party that wants to win elections must always be in the mode for elections and sustain its structures through party election education at all times.

Of course, policies that are acceptable to the party membership and voters will form the core of the message during election campaign. If we take what happened in the USA as an example, after Barak Obama won the presidential election for the first time, he did not disband his election machinery but kept it in place for the second presidential election.

Obama’s party workers kept on registering many people of colour from day one after the first election right up to the second election. This is what Zanu-PF did and will always do. To register its members as voters for general elections as well as for any party primary elections to be held in the future.

As case in point is of a party cadre that kept his money for a monthly subscription for his party card instead of spending it on beer. This is what adherence to a party’s principles means.

Many so called political parties, especially the opposition, make the mistake of relying on what newspapers tell them instead of developing ideologies that will win elections. Take the case of homosexuality. Surely, the Western countries have made it well known that they will not give any financial aid to governments that do not enshrine homosexuality in their constitutions.

For any political party to claim that investments and financial support could come from such countries is committing political suicide. Christian movements in Zimbabwe and Africa are against homosexuality and vote against political parties that promote gay policies. Is it any wonder that Zanu-PF won the harmonised elections so convincingly?

When the ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau  was interviewed by the Sunday Mail recently, she made a statement to the effect that they were 18 000 polling agents who put their signatures to every document concerning the conduct of the elections. Surely, if anything was amiss, these agents would have not signed the tallying papers. But, be that as it may, a political party is different from a protest movement.