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Zambian political parties lack ideologies, says Simutanyi

Zambian political parties lack ideologies, says Simutanyi
By Jack Zimba
Sunday June 15, 2008 [04:00]

THERE is lack of clear ideological foundations within political parties in Zambia, University of Zambia (UNZA) lecturer Dr Neo Simutanyi has observed. During a discussion on political parties and their manifestos organised by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FHS) at Lusaka Hotel on Thursday, Dr Simutanyi said political parties risked becoming irrelevant if they did not publicise their manifestos for public scrutiny. He expressed worry that most leaders attending the workshop could not clearly explain their party ideologies because they were developed by few individuals.

“Even the officials that are sitting here do not know about the content of their manifestos, which is really a shame,” he said.

“Time has come for parties to sharpen their skills and come up with good policies that they can market to the electorate.”

Dr Simutanyi said the relegation of policy to the backside was doing a disservice to Zambia’s democracy.

And FHS country director, Gerd Bolterweck said members of political parties must define the manifesto of the party to promote democracy. He said this would also help the members to identify with the party and not an individual.

National Democratic Focus national secretary Clifford Mwaba, observed that most parties in the country were based on personalities, instead of policy.

“Once a strong personality comes up with a political party, he becomes the manifesto and ideology of the party,” Mwaba said.

And one of the resource persons, Horrance Chilando, from the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue, said political parties should come up with participatory ways to formulate their manifestos.

He said manifestoes were not a preserve of a political party, and called on leaders to publicise their party policies so that people could scrutinise them.

Chilando said the tendency by political parties to hide their manifestos had led to failure by other parties to analyse the manifestos of other political parties.

The workshop was attended by representatives from over 10 political parties, including the MMD, United Party for National Development, Patriotic Front and UNIP.

Labels: DR NEO SIMUTANYI, PARTIES, POLICY, POLITICS

posted by MrK @ 3:15 AM