Ruling parties typically have far greater resources than opposition parties: this is one of the findings presented at and IDEA/EISA- promoting credible elections and democratic governance in Africa - co-hosted workshop on political parties and democratic governance in the SADC region 14-15 April in Johannesburg, South Africa. This second dialogue workshop presented the findings of eight country researches on electoral regulatory environments and the internal functioning of parties in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

Representatives from ruling and opposition political parties alike took part in the discussions and raised the following issues:

• On political party funding – funding of political parties from the private sector was controversial and characterized by a lack of transparency. Across all countries, findings suggest that there is a lack of external regulations governing private funding. In addition, ruling parties tend to use state assets for party purposes, blurring the distinction between political parties and the government.
• On the lack of democratic processes within parties, a common feature is that party leaders have great control over party direction – raising concerns about the succession of leaders within political parties.
• On women’s political participation – apart from Mozambique and South Africa, and to some extent Namibia, governments and parties fell far short of gender representation targets. 

IDEA and EISA gathered the information through surveys and interviews with political party representatives and other stakeholders. A key focus of the investigations was on political parties’ role in institutionalizing democratic governance. The research methodology and workshop compared the findings from each country and highlighted the similarities and differences in external regulations and the way in which parties function. Further findings will be published later in 2005.

This series of workshops forms part of IDEA’s global investigation into the external regulation and internal functioning of political parties.