| IJPSD |
International Journal of Political Science and Development |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
International Journal of Political Science and Development Vol. 1(3), pp. 105–116, November 2013 DOI: 10.14662/IJPSD2013.009 ISSN: 2360-784X Review
Governments of National Unity (GNUs) and the Preponderance of the
Incumbency: Case of Kenya and Zimbabwe
Political contestation
through elections is a vital tenet of democracy. In elections, the
electorate seek to choose political leaders in line with
international best practice. The disputed elections in Kenya (2007)
and Zimbabwe (2008) had the propensity to degenerate into ethnic
civil war and political acrimony respectively. It took mediation
efforts of Koffi Annan and Mr Thabo Mbeki to cobble up ruling
coalitions to govern each of the countries respectively. The paper
deliberates on the fact that the transitional arrangements were a
temporary reprieve to curtail violence, for political players to
re-group and to make time to cool political temperatures. However,
such arrangements pitted political foes into one government though
the chances of fostering complete unison were evidently very remote.
The paper argues that the outcome of the post-GNU dispensation in
the two countries is rooted in the preponderance of the incumbency
in which the major political players took advantage of their weaker
coalition partners to manipulate the different public institutions
for political gain. The paper concludes that the former opposition
parties or their associates continue to play second fiddle and
eventually lose the post-GNU elections.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
