Opposition Party Practices in a Shrinking Civic Space

• In Event: Party Behavior in Africa

Abstract

Civic space in Tanzania has been in sharp decline over the last three years, with a direct impact on opposition political parties. The right of assembly, for example, was restricted by a ban on political rallies in 2016. Opposition party leaders, including the Chairman of the main opposition party (CHADEMA), have been arrested with court charges. A new Political Parties Bill, that will further restrict opposition parties, has been tabled for consideration in the parliament. Given this context, this paper analyses the practices of CHADEMA between 2016 and 2018 to explore their survival strategy. The analysis will examine the institutional strength of the party, as well as the strategies it has deployed to counter the restrictions. Conventional literature has argued that the institutional foundations of CHADEMA are relatively weak in comparison to the ruling CCM (Hoffman and Robinson, 2009; Morse, 2014; Whitehead, 2011). However, the 2015 elections, in which CHADEMA secured 40% of the presidential vote share and 17% of parliamentary seats, underscored a milestone in the party’s growth (Paget, 2017; 2018). Using process tracing, the paper will assess the party’s practices on the ground against their formal institutional framework, using data collected as part of the Political Party Database project (PPDB). Using the “practice as strategy” perspective from organizational studies, this paper will further contribute to the literature on political parties in Africa, and in particular to the institutional analysis of opposition parties.

Author

• Aikande Clement Kwayu, Bumaco Ltd