Andeleki seeks to deregister inactive political parties

Andeleki seeks to deregister inactive political parties
By Fridah Nkonde
Fri 19 Oct. 2012, 14:00 CAT

REGISTRAR of Societies chief registrar Clement Andeleki says political parties that fail to gain political ground within two years will be deregistered.

In an interview yesterday, Andeleki said parties that did not actively participate in elections but only endorse others would be deregistered once amendment of the societies Act chapter 119 of the Laws of Zambia was done.

"This is the view that we are going to take after amending the act. We have been consulting with stakeholders and we will even be presenting the amended Act to Parliament very soon," he said.

Andeleki said it was unfortunate that most political parties in Zambia were just there to endorse other parties when it was election time and also gain donor funds.

He said there were 47 political parties in Zambia but only about six participated in elections.

Andeleki said deregistering political parties that did not actively participate in elections would prevent most other parties from using politics as a business.

He said people were supposed to use politics to benefit the whole country and not just to satisfy their desires.

"One thing I know for sure is that when a political party starts, it obviously starts from one town, say Lusaka and later on grow into a fully fledged political party with physical presence in all the provinces. That political party should be able to take part in elections instead of just endorsing other political parties. We are trying to bring sanity in the manner in which societies are being operated in the country," he said.

He said his department would not allow other political parties endorsing and ratifying other political parties during elections because all parties were supposed to take part in elections.

And Andeleki said his department would engage church mother bodies to come up with a code of conduct for all church leaders.

The Council of Churches in Zambia in a Communiqué from the CCZ 29th general conference stated that the church mother body was looking forward to engaging with the Registrar of Societies to iron out problematic issues in the Act.

But Andeleki said the Church in Zambia was facing a lot of problems because the Act did not make provisions for the regulations of church leaders.

He said the Act only concentrated on the Church and not the individual.

"How do we discipline church leaders when the Act does not make provisions for such regulations? These are some of the grey areas that are found in the Act. There are a lot of people who are claiming to be pastors and bishops. Some even go as far as preaching in the buses and collecting offering…it is not right," he said.