Political party funding sparks concerns
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday February 19, 2024 06:00
During the recent Budget Speech, the Minister of Finance, Peggy Serame, announced that the government has introduced political party funding to the tune of P34 million, which she added will enhance the country’s democratic principles. The opposition and other players have long advocated for the public funding of political parties and the enactment of a legal framework to regulate the arrangement.
However, sceptics, especially in opposition circles, fear that the bulk of the money will go to the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) at the expense of the opposition and thus work against levelling the playing ground.
The opposition sceptics are also of the view that they may not be involved in the drafting of legislation of public financing of political parties. Worse still, they fear that even if they participated in debates about how the law should be formulated to the fair benefit of all parties, their input may not carry enough weight because the BDP has a majority of legislators in Parliament.
The jury is still out regarding fears of the opposition. A lot of reasons have been advanced as contributing factors to the low turnout of women in parties’ internal polls and national elections. Experts say since Botswana is arguably a patriarchal society, negative patriarchal tendencies contribute to the low turnout of women in politics. In addition, experts have cited the overall few economic resources that women possess than men, which translate into patterns of representation, as one of the major factors that lead few women partaking in Botswana’s political contests both at party and national level.
A similar report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) titled, “Electoral financing to advance women’s political participation: A guide for UNDP Support”, says globally, men earn more than women and women occupy a disproportionate number of poorly paid and unprotected jobs, including in the informal sector and migrant labour pools.
“For some women, campaign expenses will be the same as those for male candidates. Electoral costs fluctuate during the course of an election cycle. Much of the research on women and electoral financing suggests that one of the greatest hurdles women face is financing the process of gaining a nomination. Nomination costs require women to come up with funds to build name recognition, travel, attend party meetings, organise a campaign team and cultivate a constituency. After nomination, public financing may kick in, party support may increase, and greater visibility may attract additional sources of funding,” says the report.
The UNDP report also states that lack of networks hinders women from effectively participating in politics.
“Women in general still have fewer links to both the formal and informal networks that influence campaigns in many countries. They are less likely to have ties to the business and professional communities that supply campaign funds, and they are more likely to be excluded from male-dominated networks within parties that might otherwise help new candidates gain a foothold through contacts, funding and other essential resources. The low but increasing number of women in politics tells two stories: 1) women still face many obstacles hindering their equal participation in politics, and 2) women do find sources of support for their candidacies. Both sets of issues apply to electoral financing. To date, few concrete steps have been taken to improve women’s access to financing, but momentum could build from the many broader commitments to democracy and women’s political participation,” the report adds.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) report to the Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration on the 2019 General Election, which depicts the level of participation by gender in relation to candidature, most political parties nominated fewer women candidates to men. “All political parties had less than five women contesting, with the Real Alternative Party (RAP) having no female contestant. Additionally, all parliamentary independent candidates were male. The low numbers of women contesting for elections in Botswana remains worrisome,” says the report.
For example, as per the report, the Alliance for Progressives (AP) fielded two women candidates for Parliament as compared to 39 males. The BDP fielded four women as compared to 53 males, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) fielded two women in comparison to eight males while the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) was represented by only one female as compared to 19 males. The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) nominated 22 females in contrast to 55 males to contest for parliamentary seats. While the above was the case in 2019, the same report (disaggregation of voters by gender) shows that females comprised a larger number of people who registered to vote in the 2019 General Election.
According to the report, 505, 053 and 420, 425 females and males respectively registered for the 2019 General Election. The dichotomy between the high number of women who registered for elections and women who managed to represent their parties and end up being successful in the ballot at both council and legislative level is surprising.
Some experts have hailed the move to introduce public financing of political parties as long overdue with the University of Botswana (UB) Professor of politics, Zibani Maundeni saying: “We have long advocated for political parties in Botswana to be funded from government coffers. If political parties in Botswana are not funded by the government, our fear is that it exposes the country to external fraudsters awash with cash who may want to fund local political parties for their nefarious interests. This will compromise the democracy of our country.” Maundeni added that the funds that the government will allocate to the parties should be used in a manner that will benefit the disadvantaged groups (women, youth and people with disabilities) in their campaigns.
“Unfortunately, the minister announced the government’s decision of allocating political finance to parties without any accompanying regulations. There should be guidelines that regulate how money from the government should be distributed and used by the political parties. The parties should be given guidelines about how they should use these finances for the benefit of disadvantaged groups (women, youth and people with disabilities). Doing so will increase the participation of this section of society in politics,” Maundeni said.
Another UB political analyst, Dr Kebapetse Lotshwao said: “In reality, this money will be given to political parties to campaign to level the political playing field. The money can help women if there is goodwill within political parties to support women. There should be programmes tailored to support women in a bid to solve the problem of low women participation in politics.”
Since the advent of democracy in Botswana, there has been an outcry about the low level of women participation in politics. The problem is much more pronounced at parliamentary level where few women end up making it to Parliament following national elections. Mmegi Correspondent LEBOGANG MOSIKARE asks if the decision by government to introduce political party funding will increase women’s participation in politics