Multipartism “is the situation in the country where three or more
parties compete effectively for political offices and none of them expect to
win control the government on its own”. Multipatism characterised by
competition among more than two parties, reducing the chances of single party
government and increasing the like hood of coalitions[1].
For example Tanzania is a good example of multiparty country with multiple
political parties such as CHADEMA, CUF, TLP and others.
Monopartism refers to the representatives of one political party in the
country where it hold all offices in the government. (Richard W.A.1977) This
condition many prevail where only one party is legally permitted to run
candidates as in Nazi Germany and Fascist in Italy, the people’s republic of
China and society union. It involves
only faction within the dominant party.
At the time of independence there were four political parties in
Tanganyika which were Tanganyika National Union (TANU), The United Tanganyika
Party (U.T.P), The African National Congress(ANC), The all Muslim National
Union of Tanganyika (A.M.N.U.T) After independence three more parties were
registered which were The people Convection Party( PCP), The African
Independence Movement (A.I.M), People Democratic Party (PDP), Similarly at the
time of independence in Zanzibar in 1963 there were four registered political
parties which were afro-shirazi party (A.S.P), Zanzibar National Party
(ZNP),Zanzibar and Pemba Party (Z.P.P.P), and The UMMA party. And also Kenya
had three political parties which were Kenya African National Union (KANU) and
Kenya Democratic Union (KADU) and African Peoples Party. Most of the pre-
independence parties where established forth sole purpose of opposing the
colonial administration in order to gain independence[2].
After gaining independence from colonial
rule, Most of African country including Tanzania and Kenya adopted monoparty
political system aimed at bring about national unity to foster social and
economic development, harmony and peace.
The following are the methodology used by Tanzania and Kenya in
transition from multipartism to monopartism in the early 1960; starting with
Tanzania mainland:-
The methodology used for establishing one party system in Tanzania
mainland was that of amending the relevant constitutions, at the independence
Tanganyika was legally and constitutional a multiparty state[3].
Hence the election which was held in the run up to independence followed the
rules of multipartism election where each participating party had to put up one
candidate who would compete with candidate of other parties. In 1960 general
election TANU candidates were returned up oppose in the majority of
constituencies due to the fact that during each general election TANU won the
election in un opposed in the majority of constituencies for example in 1960
TANU won all 71 seats which were contested by qualified candidates of any race,
which 11 seats were reserved for Asians and 10 seats for European (Msekwa p
2009). On the greatest significant in such situation was the fact that in all
those areas where the TANU candidates were returned un opposed the president
Nyerere proposed that the country constitution should be changed to one party state constitution, so that TANU
could create electoral competition by presenting more than one candidates to
the electorate in each constituency. His proposal was approved by the national
executive committee of TANU in 1963 after which presidential commission was
formed which prepared a one party constitution in 1964, and then adopted it in
1965[4].
Therefore from that Tanzania changed from multipatism to monopartism political
system.
Also in Zanzibar before it had decided to join with Tanganyika (Tanzania
mainland) to form the united republic of Tanzania there were various political
parties which were based and formed out of racial civil society organizations,
the Zanzibar nationalist party (ZNP) formed in 1955, Afro-shiraz party (ASP)
formed in 1957, Zanzibar and Pemba People’s Party (ZPPP) in 1959 and the UMMA
party in 1963. The revolution that took place in January 12th 1964
which aimed at removing the British colonialists which was done through
constitutional changes occurred in 1963 also it intended to remove the
sultanate, feudalism and capitalism which was done through revolution give the
room for the ASP (Afro-Shirazi Party) to create political power where
multipartism was abolished[5].
Thus the ASP becomes the only political party after carried out the successful
revolution[6].
After changing Multipatism to monopartism through constitutional change ASP
joined with TANU in 1964 to form union system known as united republic of
Tanzania. The political system in Zanzibar continued under the system of
monopartism from 1964 to 1992, a period of 28 years, from 1964 to 1977 it was
under ASP and from 1977 to 1992 it was under CCM party which was a results of
merging the ASP of Zanzibar and the TANU of Tanzania mainland were under the
same party CCM” (Mpangala G.P 2000)
In Kenya up to the early 1960s there were political parties which were
ethnic oriented. There was KANU (Kenya African National Union) and KADU (Kenya
African Democratic Union) which was characterised as ethnic parties (Mpangala
2000). Also there was APP (African Peoples Party) where KANU marginalised the
Luo and it therefore became, Kikuyu Party soon after independence. KADU was
based in minority ethnic group while
APP was based on the Kamba ethnic group[7].
The methodology used by Kenya to change from multipartism to monopartism in the
early 1960s was through violence. The transitional from multipartism to
monopartism passed through different steps. Soon after independence in 1963 the
constitution was under multipartism but after independence the ruling party
KANU and its new government under President Jomo Kenyatta began to take steps
which made it difficult for the opposition parties to operate (Mpangala 2000).
Therefore the ruling party restricting to provide government financial support
to the political parties, also there were banning of political parties for
example in 1969 Kenyan Political Union was banned therefore opposition parties
failed to operate themselves without government fund where in 1964 KADU and APP
dissolved themselves voluntarily and therefore KANU used that chance to form
the constitution under one party system known as defacto one party. In 1982 the
constitution was ammended where Kenya becomes a dejure one party state under
the presidency of Arap Moi.
Therefore in Tanzania the transition from multipartism to monopartism
did not faced with difficultness like in Kenya, where in Tanzania monopartism stayed for long period from 1965
to1992 creating unity peace and harmony among Tanzanians both mainland and
Zanzibar. One party system in Tanzania managed to avoid eruption of violent conflicts
also one party political system developed a strong mass based national ideology
of socialism and self reliance In Kenya after changing from multipartism to monopartism it faced
challenges where the three decades of defacto and dejure one party system
facilitated the consolidation of ethnic consciousness and tensions led to the
formation of ethnic associations and other movements demanding for
multipartism.
REFFERENCES
Mpangala, G.P (2000), Ethnic conflict in the regions of the great
lakes: Origins and
prospects of changes,
Dar es salaam
institute of Kiswahili research
Msekwa, P (1995), Transition to
multiparty democracy, Dar es salaam: Tema publisher
Company.
Msekwa, P (2006), Reflection on
the first decade of multi-party politics in Tanzania,
Dar
es Salaam: Hanns seided foundation.
Okoth, A. (2006), A History of
Africa. vol.2
Richard. W. A. (1977), Promise and
performance of American democracy. 3rd Ed,
New York: John hiley & sons Inc.
[1]
Richard W.A (1977) Promise and
performance in American democracy 3rd Ed pg 234
[2]
Msekwa, P. (2006) Reflection on the first
decade of multiparty politics in Tanzania pg. 1
[3] Ibid
Pg 2.
[4]
Mpangala, G.P. (2000), Ethnic conflict in
the Regions of the great lake pg 66.
[5] Ibid pg 60.
[6]
Msekwa, P. (2006) Reflection on the first
decade of multiparty political Tanzania pg. 4
[7] Mpangala,
G.P. (2000), Ethnic conflict in the
Regions of the great lake pg 53
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