Opposition parties lose more under Political Parties Finance Act

via Opposition parties lose more under Political Parties Finance Act – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 22, 2015

ZANU PF’S recent election victory in the June 10 by-elections has punched a large hole on opposition parties’ cash allocation under the Political Parties Finance Act as the ruling party is now guaranteed of the lion’s share given its numerical superiority in Parliament.

by VENERANDA LANGA

Leader of the House, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, told the National Assembly last Wednesday that the money to be allocated to the opposition parties would definitely dwindle and Zanu PF would get the lion’s share.

Mnangagwa was responding to a question by Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu PF) who had asked if the opposition would now lose their Proportional Representation seats allocated in 2013 after being trounced during the recently held by-elections.
“What has changed since the 2013 elections to the current by-elections is the number of people elected into this House, and so we will look at financing of political parties,” Mnangagwa said.

“It will mean that the party which has more people in this House will receive a bigger proportion of the finances and those whose numbers have been reduced will also receive smaller amounts.”

In the 2015 National Budget, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa allocated $3 million to be proportionally shared by the political parties that secured sizeable votes during the 2013 elections.

Under the Political Parties Finance Act, any political party that secures at least 5% of the total votes cast is entitled to receive funding from Treasury.

Currently, only Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC were entitled to the fund.

On the issue of Proportional Representation seats, Mnangagwa said: “Proportional Representation, as stated in our Constitution and also as it applies in the Electoral Act, means that whatever happened in the 2013 elections also determined the Proportional Representation, not the by-elections, and it was through those votes which made us allocate the seats according to the proportions garnered by each individual party. Therefore, in the general elections in 2013, each political party was allocated seats on the basis of the general election. So, what this means is there is no change to that, according to these by-elections.”