Malanding,
             Thanks  for the response. I will now avail myself the
opportunity to draw a different  conclusion from the same material that we have both
looked at; and that is the  statement that has been inferred in the
previous mail.

             It  may be true, that the primary goal of party politics in a
parliamentary  democracy is to get votes; however, it is equally true that
political parties  try to gain popular support by raising funds, mobilizing
opinion leaders in  towns, cities and villages and turn them into party
mobilizers.  Nonetheless, the fundamental lesson is that the ruling government
and party, can  always be in a better position to raise more funds; it would
always be in a  better position to mobilize more resources so as to influence
more opinion  leaders and turn them into party mobilizers. And, therefore,
as long as the  ruling government always has this power of incumbency, it
will continue to  get votes and win elections as long as the system is based
on inducement to  build popular support and get votes. This has been the case
with the first  republic, and it lasted for more than 30 years. It will be
the case in the  second republic, and we haven't stop counting yet. Now tell
me, based on the  scenario I have outlined above, what can PDOIS do
differently to get votes that  will ensure that it is voted into power? So far, for
a period of more than  45 years, 30 plus from the first republic and 15
into the second republic, we  only have two presidents ever. This is the first
point to note.

           Secondly,  PDOIS does not ONLY want to get voted into power.
Faced with the  daunting challenge of the politics of patronage and inducement,
the only tactics  it has to reach to the people is to give them information
regarding why the  situation is as it is; and why and how they should
support it to fight the  poverty and powerlessness of the people. This does not
in any way demean  the politics of ASOBI, and other political parties who
rely on this politics  does not fare well either when it comes to the ruling
government and party. They  will always play second fiddle. So, what has
changed?

       Rene
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