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- Description:
- The primary concern of this essay is to explain the nature of the 'transaction' between electoral politics and tribalism, especially with reference to the multiparty elections of 1992. It argues that the politics of the 1992 general elections show how ethnicity continues to be a major force influencing the behaviour of politicians and voters alike. What is more, where power and wealth were at stake, ethnic relations became conflictual. The elections also manifested how the elites can mobilise ethnic passions to defend and or promote what is otherwise their narrow sectional interests. The masses followed their leaders because of the lingering belief that only "one of your own" can best serve communal interest if placed in a position of power. But it was also clear that ethnic ideology has its limitations. Intra-ethnic divisions were manifest where narrow sectional interests came into play. The emergence of splinter parties led by members of the same ethnic group was the inevitable consequence of such contradictions.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Science
- Description:
- This paper briefly examines the unprecedented political events in Malawi that began in March 1992 and culminated in multi-party elections in which Dr. Banda's regime yielded the reigns of power to a democratically elected government. Using detailed results of the 1994 presidential and parliamentary elections, the paper argues that regionalism rather than ethnicity appears to be the dominant factor influencing voting patterns at the national level. Regionalism appears to have resulted in the formation of three super ethnic groups each with its own regional base. Elites are securing political power by redefining the ethnic equation; and their competition for scarce resources and political power continues to occur in the guise of spatial units, among which the super ethnic region is the more salient, and has consequently become the most influential factor in elections.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Science