Are Africa's Power Sharing Arrangements Sustainable?

[rujumba]

Post - election negotiated settlements in Kenya and Zimbabwe have unveiled a very unique governance model in Africa. Although touted as a 'model' in post - election dispute settlement, the sustainability of this arrangement is yet to be proven. Post - election power sharing arangements in Kenya and Zimbabwe have literarily yielded an amalgamation of the Presidential and the Parliamentary systems. Under Presidential systems like that in the United States, the President wields executive powers and operates in a system of checks and balances where Congress [the Legislative arm of government] and the Judiciary counterpoise the presidency. For example, Congress [the legislative arm] is charged with the responsibilty of making laws. However, in the event the President has misgivings about a piece of legislation, he/she can exercise the veto to block it. In the event Congress revised the vetoed legislation and the President vetoed it a second time, this legislation would automatically become law after a certain period of time has elapsed. Presidential systems are also characterized by the principle of separation of powers where members of one organ of government can not at the same time serve as members of another. For example, a Senator [ a member of the Legislature] can not at the same time act as a Secretary of State [a member of the Executive]. This was the reason why Senator Hilary Clinton had to relinquish her position as Senator to take up a position as Secretary of State in the Obama administration. However, under Parliamentary systems like that in the United Kingdom, there is a fusion of powers where for example a Prime Minister like Gordon Brown is at the same time a Member of Parliament. In both the UK and the US, there is only one depository of executive powers. In the US, it is the President, whereas in the UK it is the Prime Minister. I am not very familiar with the French model. However, i am aware of the fact that the French constitution vests executive powers in both the office of President and the Prime Minister [I might need clarification here]. Although the French system seems to be an exception, it has been working well and there has been no constitutional dispute related thereto.

In order to arrive at post-election dispute settlements in Kenya and Zimbabwe, there was an attempt to amalgamate the Presidential and Parliamentary systems. In both cases, the plan was to accommodate the Leaders of Opposition in the power sharing arrangement. For example as a way of arriving at a compromise, Raila Odinga and Morgan Tsvangerai of Kenya and Zimbabwe respectively were designated as Executive Prime Ministers. Adding the tag 'Executive' would ostensible give them 'teeth' to bite during the course of executing their duties and functions. Although this compromise 'model' ended rioting in Nairobi, the evolution of 2 parallel executives competing for power and influence within the Kenyan Government of National Unity threatens to send the rioters back onto the streets of Nairobi. At the heart of the gradual unravelling of the power sharing arrangement is the untenability of a system where the checks and balances are exercised within the executive organ of government. In other words one part of the executive [the Executive Prime Minister] is created to check another part of the executive [the Executive President]. This scenario is currently playing out in the Government of National Unity power sharing arrangement in Kenya. There are 2 parallel centres of power in the Kenyan government. One is headed by the 'Executive' Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the other by the 'Executive' President Mwai Kibaki. I foresee a similar situation playing out in Zimbabwe where the 'Executive' Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangerai and 'Executive' President Robert Mugabe start competing for executive power under the Zimbabwean post-election power sharing arrangement. Are Africa's power sharing arrangements tenable?

[paul]

Are Africa's power sharing arrangements sustainable?

My lecturer of Comparative politics at Makerere University Kampala made the following comment in regard to power sharing by African governments; African countries have come up with a new model of democracy in which the winner becomes Prime Minister while the looser becomes the President!
I wish to briefly address myself to the events that preceded Kenya's 2007 Presidential elections in which the main contenders were Mr. Mwai Kibaki of the PNU party and Raila Odinga of the ODM party. Preliminary results had all indicated the opposition ODM of Raila leading with a very big margin which threatened the incumbent Mr. Kibaki to halt the announcement of the final results.
As it has always been the case with most African incumbents the results were altered in favor of PNU and no wonder when the Chairman of the Electoral commission of Kenya confessed that he had been harassed to announce the results, he was left with no choice but to tender in his resignation.

Therefore the current tension between the two leaders Kibaki and Raila relates to the National accord signed by both parties on a power sharing arrangement. Under the terms of the accord, the position of the Prime Minister with executive powers was given to Mr. Odinga. However to the detriment of African democracy, Ministers on the PNU side have openly contradicted the Prime Minister on top of using derogatory and partisan statements.
These governments are about power and not serving the people, they are not looking at salvaging the situation.

In the case of Zimbabwe, there are senior military officials who vowed not to salute Morgan even if he became Mr. President. A similar experience in Kenya has been noted, a provincial commissioner in Mombasa traveled to Nairobi the same day the Prime Minister was going to officiate at a function in his area. There have been complaints of poor facilitation by the Prime Minister and being denied red carpet treatment. This however should not be a surprise to many because a coalition between a looser and a winner is always bound to face challenges. The analogy of a robber who steals the bank and after his apprehension then he asks to negotiate and share the loot with the manager and the shareholders squarely give these arrangements a fair description. These arrangements are deals for sharing jobs rather than serving the people. Africa is setting a very bad precedent intended to accommodate robbers of elections!!