JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS JOURNAL OF JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS Vol 6 No 1 June 2007 6 No 1 June Vol Volume 6 Number 1 June 2007 VOLUME 6 NO 1 1 Journal of African Elections ARTICLES BY Peter Vale Albert Domson-Lindsay Sulaiman Kura Victor Shale Mohamed Salih & Abdalla Hamdok Norbert Kersting Maxi Schoeman & Charles Puttergill Ernest T Mallya Lesley Blaauw Patrick Vander Weyden Volume 6 Number 1 June 2007 1 2 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS Published by EISA 14 Park Road, Richmond Johannesburg South Africa P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006 South Africa Tel: +27 011 482 5495 Fax: +27 011 482 6163 e-mail: [email protected] ©EISA 2007 ISSN: 1609-4700 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher Copy editor: Pat Tucker Printed by: Global Print, Johannesburg Cover photograph: Reproduced with the permission of the HAMILL GALLERY OF AFRICAN ART, BOSTON, MA, USA www.eisa.org.za VOLUME 6 NO 1 3 EDITORS Denis Kadima, Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, Johannesburg Khabele Matlosa, Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, Johannesburg EDITORIAL BOARD Tessy Bakary, Office of the Prime Minister, Abidjan, Côte di’Ivoire David Caroll, Democracy Program, The Carter Center, Atlanta Jørgen Elklit, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark Amanda Gouws, Department of Political Science, University of Stellenbosch Abdalla Hamdok, International Institute for Democracy Assistance, Pretoria Sean Jacobs, New York University, Brooklyn, NY Claude Kabemba, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria Peter Kagwanja, International Crisis Group, Southern Africa Project, Pretoria Peter Katjavivi, Ambassador of Namibia to the European Union in Brussels Abdul Rahman Lamin, Department of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Tom Lodge, Department Politics and Public Administration, University of Limerick Robin Ludwig, UN Dialogue with the Global South, New York Robert Mattes, Department of Political Science, University of Cape Town Yvonne Muthien, Corporate Affairs, MTN South Africa Eghosa Osaghae, Igbinedion University, Okada, Nigeria David Pottie, The Carter Center, Atlanta Ben Reilly, Asia Pacific School of Economics & Government, The Australian National University, Canberra Lloyd Sachikonye, Institute of Development Studies, University of Zimbabwe, Harare Jeremy Seekings, Sociology Department, University of Cape Town Timothy Sisk, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, Colorado Gloria Somolekae, National Representative of the W K Kellogg Programme in Botswana and EISA Board member Roger Southall, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria The Journal of African Elections is an interdisciplinary biannual publication of research and writing in the human sciences, which seeks to promote a scholarly understanding of developments and change in Africa. Responsibility for opinions expressed and for the accuracy of facts published in papers, research notes, review articles and book reviews rests solely with the individual authors or reviewers. Contributions are referred to specialist readers for consideration, but the Editor is responsible for the final selection of the contents of the Journal. Editorial correspondence, including manuscripts for submission and books for review, should be sent to: The Editor, Journal of African Elections EISA: P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006, South Africa Business correspondence, including orders and remittances, subscription queries, advertisements, back numbers and offprints, should be addressed to: The Publisher, Journal of African Elections EISA: P O Box 740 Auckland Park 2006 South Africa 4 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS CONTENTS What Future for Electoral Studies?: A Critique Peter Vale...............................................................................................................................................1 Democracy and Security in West and Southern Africa Albert Domson-Lindsay ......................................................................................................................17 Contemporary African Political Parties: Institutionalisation for the Sustainability of Democracy Sulaiman Balarabe Kura .....................................................................................................................41 Opposition Party Alliances and Elections in Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia Victor Shale .........................................................................................................................................91 A Preface to an Inclusive African Electoral System Reform Agenda Mohamed Salih and Abdalla Hamdok ............................................................................................... 118 Electoral Reform in Southern Africa: Voter Turnout, Electoral Rules and Infrastructure Norbert Kersting ...............................................................................................................................134 Voting Behaviour in the SA Local Government Elections of 2006 With Specific Reference to the Youth Maxi Schoeman and Charles Puttergill ............................................................................................152 The Political Economy of Democracy in Tanzania Ernest T Mallya ................................................................................................................................174 Measuring the Support for Democracy in Namibia: Intrinsic or Instrumental? Lesley Blaauw ....................................................................................................................................189 Founding Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Highly Fragmented Party System Patrick Vander Weyden .....................................................................................................................203 Review ..............................................................................................................................................219 Contents of Previous Issues ..........................................................................................................221 Notes for Contributors ...................................................................................................................232 VOLUME 6 NO 1 1 WHAT FUTURE FOR ELECTORAL STUDIES?: A critique Peter Vale Peter Vale is Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics at Rhodes University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). This is AEON Contribution Number 34. PO Box 94␣ Grahamstown Tel: +27 046 603 8354; Fax: +27 046 622 4345 email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Using approaches drawn from critical theory this paper explores the idea of electoral studies from historical and contemporary perspectives. It argues that the techniques used in electoral studies – in Southern African and elsewhere – have been corroded by neo-liberal economics and therefore by the rote and routine of management studies. Electoral studies might secure individual security and so promote governance by becoming more relevant to the lives and everyday struggles of the region’s citizens. INTRODUCTION The aim of this paper is to provoke. Provocation seems necessary because, for some, ‘electoral studies’ resembles ‘diplomatic studies’, even to the extent that the staged smiles of the latter seem more and more to hang around elections and their monitoring. Both diplomatic studies and electoral studies are applied social sciences and, like many of this genre, they are micro in the scope of their interest. They are, therefore, creatures of a particular conceptual genus; seemingly far removed from macro-theory, they hide, virus-like, within larger discourses and, when called upon to justify themselves, they do so in strictly utilitarian terms. As a result, their deliberations seem to be almost entirely devoid of any wider preoccupation, theoretical or other. * This paper was presented at a conference, ‘Challenges for Democratic Governance and Human Development in Africa’, celebrating EISA’s tenth anniversary, 8 – 10 November 2006. 1 2 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ELECTIONS Of course, ‘electoral studies’ is not new in the discipline of ‘political science’ – indeed, the original purpose of the systematic study of politics, especially in the United States, was to develop a ‘new man’ who could be called ‘the democratic citizen’. And it was unlikely that the project of building and sustaining this democratic citizenry was possible without understanding how individual citizens operate within institutionalised politics – particularly at the high point of the process, the election itself. Because this argument partially relies on the philosophy of science, for a few further paragraphs the paper considers the practice of ‘electoral studies’ within its generic setting. The adjective generic is not a good one; particularistic is better. This is because electoral studies has been dominated by American scholarship and therefore it is possible to show that all studies of elections – including those in Southern Africa – have been deeply influenced by a particular form of scholarship on, and understanding of, elections, both within democracies and elsewhere. Inevitably, then, ‘electoral studies’ as it is understood in Southern Africa, and especially within EISA, is tied to an