The sources, who did not want to be named, said it was felt that it
would not be viewed in good light both by Zimbabweans and the donor
community for the government to extend a begging bowl to regional
neighbours only to turn back and use the money on non-essential
functions.
The consensus is that this year there will be no
disbursement of funds under the Political Parties Act as the government
is broke and the funds have not been budgeted, said the source.
President
Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) and Deputy Premier Arthur
Mutambara's faction of the MDC are entitled to receive funding from
treasury.
The PPA stipulates that any political party
represented in the House of Assembly and in the Senate is entitled to
receive funds from the government.
The funds are released by
treasury from the national budget but this year there was no budgetary
provision for the parties to receive the funds under the Act.
The
MDC-T holds 100 seats in the House of Assembly, Zanu (PF) has 99, the
MDC-M 10 and an independent candidate Jonathan Moyo has one seat.
Constitutional
and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga said the government
had not yet discussed or taken a formal position on the funding of the
political parties.
This issue of funding of political parties
under the Political Parties (Finances) Act has not been discussed from
a funding perspective and it would be difficult to comment on the issue
as it has not been looked at considering the state the economy is in,
Matinenga said.
He however said it was not clear whether the parties would receive their allocations this year or not.
Under the PPA political parties are barred from receiving funding from external sources.
BY MOSES TEMBO
Post published in: News