I can only imagine what 118 political parties on a ballot would look like. Furthermore, one spokesperson for Zimbabwe said he hopes that more are coming to sign up. I think one reason for this viewpoint is so the people have plenty of options. While this may provide higher voter turnout on election day, I think it has the potential to create divide among the people. The US has relatively low voter turnout and I think a contributing factor to that statistic is because often times voters don’t agree with any of the few candidates’ standpoints. In Zimbabwe, they won’t have this issue because I’m sure with 118 parties there will be at least one that makes each voter happy. However, at the same time, I don’t know that having this many options is a good idea because it becomes almost impossible for voters to be well informed on all of the candidates. I was also confused as to how this many parties were able to register. However, after doing more research I found the regulations for running for the Presidency in Zimbabwe are much more relaxed than they are in the United States. There is also less campaigning involved which means it’s not as expensive to run for office. I will be interested to see how the elections plays out and how many total parties end up on the ballot on election day.
