1: Introduction In early June 2006, The Herald had a screaming headline on the registration of political parties in Zimbabwe. The story emanated from a recommendation by the now defunct Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) in its valedictory report on the Senatorial elections and the Gutu House of Assembly by-election of November 2005. The, perhaps aspiring to die with a bang, observed that the absence of laws for the registration of political parties had led to the emergence of “nondescript small parties with little content and no standing, let alone sustainability.” It then recommended that this ‘problem’ could be curbed if parties were required to register with its successor, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). The recommendation than triggered considerable debate and controversy in the political and civic community that was partly captured in The Herald ( 8 June 2006) article: “Bid to amend electoral laws stirs debate.” This report is an attempt to contribute to the debate not so much to stir the debate further but to clarify issues by more objectively but critically looking at the merits and demerits of the proposal. It does so by situating Zimbabwe within a community of nations but one that is struggling to consolidate its democratic practices and by interrogating the rationale for party registration, drawing lessons from other contrives – developed and underdeveloped, old and new democracies etc. – and recommending the ‘best’ way forward on this contestable issue. The report first gives a background of the regulation of political parties, reviews various models of political finance and the different issues normally regulated including corruption, disclosures, public subsidies and the penalties for non-compliances with the law. It then zeroes in on Zimbabwe by reviewing the regulatory framework applicable in the country but aloes doing so from a comparative canvass. After critically analysing the various models, the report then recommends what we deem to be the most appropriate reforms in the country that can best promote transparency, accountability and efficiency in electoral management and processes. 2. Regulation of Political Parties: Background In public affairs, regulating entails setting rules of behaviour for individuals and/or institutions to comply with and these regulations are almost always backed up directly by the sanctions or penalties of the state. The term regulation conveys the same message and intensity as ‘standards’ in that standards also set rules of conduct backed by negative sanctions that apply if the standards or procedures are not met or followed. It may be observed that regulations and standards carry with them the notion of equality of treatment and equality before the law, p0owerful ideas in democratic societies. Both ‘regulations’ and ‘standards’ are qualitatively different from ‘guidelines’ in that the latter suggest flexibility and a capacity to recognise that circumstances and situations are different and unique. It is important to note though, that in some cases, regulations and standards, despite being backed by sanctions of the state, may in fact be applied flexibly while guidelines may be obeyed as if they are standards. When governments intervene directly in governing human affairs, they often do so through regulations. However, not all things are regulated, and even those that are, the intensity of regulating varies from one country to another. This is the case with political parties. Political parties are organised human entities through which political gladiators struggle for power to control the state and its resources for purposes of governing the society in which they are located through the implementation of its policies and programme. They are one of the manifestations of modern polities, be those polities be democratic or tyrannical. The historical genesis and development of political parties was an acknowledgement that the mass of the people needs to be taken into account in the organisation of the polity. American political scientist Schattschneider is in full praise of political parties: The rise of political parties is indubitably one of the principal distinguishing marks of modern government. The parties, in fact, have played a major role as makers of governments, more especially, they have been makers of democratic government (1942, 1) 6