Authorities in Zimbabwe want all political parties to be registered to prevent ”rogue parties” contesting future elections, reports said on Monday.
The Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) said ”registration is important in that it discourages the emergence of rogue parties”, the state-controlled Herald reported.
”The state can carry out investigations to ascertain the party’s intentions and hence be aware of any planned state sabotage,” the commission said.
The ESC’s recommendations were tabled in Parliament last week, according to the paper. Currently political groups are registered as voluntary organisations, and not as parties.
Under the proposals, political parties would have to pay a registration fee to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is tasked with running elections in the country.
The Herald report did not name any parties likely to be affected, but it mentioned ”nondescript small parties with little content and no standing, let alone sustainability”.
Zimbabwe is deeply divided between supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which recently split.
Earlier this year, police accused one MDC faction of planning acts of sabotage after a stash of weapons was found in the eastern city of Mutare.
There are also a number of very small parties, that include the Zimbabwe Youth Alliance, the Democratic Party and the emerging United People’s Movement.
The recommendations were authored late last year by the ESC, which has now been merged with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. – Sapa-DPA