Changing the law to suit a dishonest few

When Parliament passed the Political Parties Act 2011, the intention was to create order in national politics.

It ushered in stringent rules relating to party registration, membership, funding and discipline.

This was part of the big reform agenda intended to change the political landscape in view of the mess we have gone through since multiparty politics was introduced in 1991.

Its essence is that since political parties form governments, they must be transparent and practice good governance. It is only through that they can be trusted with State leadership.

To this extent, the Act contains noble provisions. However, some politicians are not amused because of some perceived restrictive clauses.

Consequently, they are proposing amendments to suspend a section that outlaws defections.

Leading the crusade is a presidential aspirant, the Rev Mutava Musyimi, who wants the provision that prohibits defections to be put on hold until after the General Election.

The argument is that politics is currently muddled, with some 100 MPs having ditched their parties, and that if the law is applied, all will lose their seats leading to a costly mini-general election.

He also argues that the country has not healed from the chaos of 2007/8, and mass elections at this time will only tear open the festering wounds.

However, all these are excuses and not reasons enough to stall the law’s implementation.

This is why we exhort the House to reject any move by MPs to push for the amendment to achieve short-term gains.

It reeks of dishonesty and amounts to abuse of power for a group to make or unmake laws at whim.

Laws cannot be changed randomly simply because they do not suit the interest of a few.