Raila is right on ODM race; internal polls do not always have to be democratic

Political parties exist to capture power.

The other objectives – political recruitment, opposing incumbents, policy formulation – are mere window dressing.

Every party’s greatest goal is to win elections.

That is true of even the smallest parties, such as the green parties in Europe.

They would love to take office and force everyone to be a vegetarian if that is their platform.

But because they can’t realistically win, they seek to influence policy from without.

For major parties, their sole objective is to form the government – and then try and implement their agenda.

That is why most parties in mature democracies are anything but democratic.

Party officials know that what they need is to appeal to the greatest number of voters.

They know some of their party members may be idealists who will produce un-electable leaders.

So they formulate rules in-house, a form of guided democracy, rules that are designed to make their party as appealing to the electorate as possible.

The two big British parties, for example, have dispensed with party nominations altogether.

For the last election, anyone wanting to be a candidate for the Conservative Party had to go through a five-stage interview conducted by a Parliamentary Assessment Board where they were tested for public speaking skills, underwent an in-tray test (requiring candidates to speedily prioritise a series of desk-based tasks), a group exercise, an interview and a written examination.

The process was not democratic. But that way, they hoped to produce the strongest candidates.

Party leadership contests are also not entirely democratic.

In the Labour Party, if it had been left to party members, David Miliband, the respected former foreign secretary, would have won.

But because the main opposition party is a party of the left with its roots in the labour movement, trade unions have a big say in the vote.

They didn’t like David Miliband who they saw as being too close to the old Tony Blair regime.

They used their votes to elevate the current leader Ed Miliband (David’s brother) to the top post.

Select people

In Kenya, I would argue that in internal party elections, it makes sense to select people who will give the party as broad an outlook as possible.

Party nominations for candidates should still be democratic because in some parts of the country they mean a direct ticket to Parliament. Internal party elections, however, are a different proposition.

Raila Odinga is one of Kenya’s canniest politicians.

He knows his politics very well, and in the ODM poll contest, he is playing his cards exactly right.

Internal democracy in a political party is a luxury.

It is practised mostly in America where one-man one-vote is an entrenched culture.
In most other societies, the name of the game is to broaden your support base.

Raila is arguably the most successful national politician Kenya has known since Jomo Kenyatta and Tom Mboya.

In 2007 and again in 2013, the geographical spread of his support reached to almost every corner of the country.

He has been very unlucky. In fact, the only reason he is not president today is because of one Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

The next election will be his last hurrah.

To win, he must mobilise his core voters and hold on to constituencies in the former Coast Province while attracting other floaters to assemble a coalition that can match Jubilee.

The ODM elections are a key starting point. He understands that capturing power is the ultimate objective of any self-respecting party.

Whether it is internally democratic or not is of only academic interest.

***

A follow-up on the Embu governor issue.

Until two weeks ago, I did not know who the governor of that county was.

I have no idea whether there is merit in the accusations against the incumbent.

If he is corrupt, he should carry his cross.

But I’m making a point about procedure.

It would be better if investigations were conducted by an independent body such as the auditor-general’s office and thieving governors charged and thrown out on the basis of such reports.

If the fate of governors is left in the hands of MCAs, they will laugh all the way to the bank, just as traffic police do every time the law is tightened.

  
The writer, an editor with the Sunday Nation, is a Chevening Scholar at the London School of Economics [email protected]