4. Minority Veto
4.5 Power Sharing in Selected Countries
4.5.1 Switzerland
The diversity in Switzerland is linguistic and religious. The country is divided along German, French, Italian and Romansh languages as well as Protestants and Catholics (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 7; McGarry, 2017: 523). The language distribution in Switzerland has Germans who constitute about 64%; French, 20%; Italian, 6%, Romansh, 1% and other languages, 9% (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 48). Religious distribution has Roman Catholic to be about 44.1%; Protestants 36.6%; Muslims, 4.5%; no religious adherence, 11.7% and others are 3.1% (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008). The country has 26 cantons, of which 20 are cantons, and 6 are half cantons, and these cantons have municipalities (Bolleyer, 2006: 24; Church and Dardanelli, 2005: 172; Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 7). The Swiss system is neither presidential nor parliamentary. The various government institutions are created to reflect the diversity that exists in the country. The country has bicameral parliament (Federal Assembly), and both chambers have the same powers which have inevitably made cantons to influence federal decision making (Church and Dardanelli, 2005: 168-169; Donato and Mahon, 2009: 283;
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 7; Vatter, 2005: 4).
As one of the longest running federal systems, Switzerland has avoided civil conflicts and war (after that of the Nineteenth Century) for years, and it has a representative seven-member
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presidential council that is rotational (McGarry and O'Leary, 2007: 694-695). Switzerland's collective presidency portrays left-right ideological balance and cantonal, religious, ethnic, and linguistic representations (Roeder, 2012: 69). Switzerland is a federal state with the division of powers among the central government, twenty cantons and six half-cantons (Lijphart, 2012: 37). The National Council is based on proportional representation, and it represents the entire Swiss people while the Council of States is constituted of two representatives from each canton and one from each half canton (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 7; Linder and Vatter, 2001: 95; Mueller and Mazzoleni, 2016: 49).
Power sharing may be introduced not only for political offices but also for all levels of the state (Khidasheli, 1999: 199). Typical examples are the seven-member Federal Council, all crucial institutions and selection of seven three-star generals of the Swiss Army, and the three directors heading the Swiss federal postal service who share the positions according to their linguistic attachments (Khidasheli, 1999: 199). The Federal Council is a seven-member executive government which is also a collective executive government jointly elected by both chambers of parliament and it is structured in a way that it represents the different regions and language groups in the country (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 8; Lijphart, 2012: 33). The position of the President annually rotates among the seven Federal Councillors (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 8). In the judicial arm, the country has cantonal and federal courts (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 8). The composition of the federal court judges is designed to reflect equity like that of the Federal Council, and the parliament selects its members (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 8). The decisions of the Federal Court are published in either German, French, Italian or Romansh (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2008: 8; Glass, 1977: 42).
The Swiss system has some similarities with that of Nigeria. For instance, the National Assembly is Bicameral, and it represents different ethnic groups. The emergence of the president in both countries are also elites’ driven. However, the tenets of the Swiss presidential council operate with a blend of informal and structured institutional framework and is well respected by the political elites. Hence, there is a clear-cut knowledge of who emerges as the president when it is expected. That of Nigeria remains an arrangement subject to elites trying to manipulate the process, which was once a threat to the country's stability in 2011.
80 4.5.2 Kenya
Kenya, as a country, has always had challenges with ethnicity/ethnic politics (Adamu and Ocheni, 2016: 15). Voting in Kenya is also along ethnic lines because of fear of any ethnic group being excluded from the government (Mueller, 2011: 105). Elections in Kenya since 1992, apart from that of 2002, have always been with some level of violence (Cheeseman, Lynch, and Willis, 2014: 2). The battle between Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) in the post-2007 elections orchestrated a power sharing arrangement in Kenya (Cheeseman, 2011: 351).
Suspicion by ODM that the ruling PNU was rigging the election led to violence that left over 1,000 dead and about 300,000 displaced (Cheeseman, 2011: 351). The PNU wanted its continued hold onto power, but the ODM latching on its strength in parliament requested that the position of Prime Minister be created with Raila Odinga being the beneficiary and that they should also have some seats in the cabinet (Cheeseman, 2008: 180).
Kofi Annan orchestrated mediation talks meant to end the violence with the instrumentality of having a coalition government that both sides will accept (Cheeseman, 2008: 180). Former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki played a crucial role in the post-election power sharing arrangement in Kenya, the success of this made him and his allies replicate almost the same in Zimbabwe (Cheeseman and Tendi, 2010: 204). The African Union, with the support of African leaders and eminent African elders, played a cogent role in the peace process, which culminated in the signing of the National Accord and the birth of a Grand Coalition Government (Juma, 2009: 407-408). The National Accord was engrafted into the constitution through an amendment passed by parliament in March 2008 (Juma, 2009: 420).
The power sharing arrangement started in 2008, and it entailed the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki emerging as the President with the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, becoming the Prime Minister (Cheeseman, 2011: 352; Cheeseman et al., 2014: 7). This accord created the Prime Minister's office, his two deputies, and a coalition government of cabinet appointees made up of the two political parties (Juma, 2009: 420). The Prime Minister was given the authority to coordinate and supervise the government’s functions, and he and his deputies could be removed through the parliament’s vote of no confidence (Juma, 2009: 420).
The challenge with the case in Kenya was that state institutions are weak. They are unable to prevent a stalemate during the election, whereby the emergence of a winner becomes
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difficult. It also implied that the country which practices a presidential system had to adopt an impromptu parliamentary system primarily to satisfy political elites. The benefit lies in the fact that peace was finally achieved, and the country has not experienced any electoral violence of that magnitude since then.
Following the 2007 election violence in Kenya, the country established the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) (Cheeseman et al., 2014: 10). Although it is not a power sharing institution, it is a preventive mechanism against political violence. Its existence is also to sustain peace. The NCIC, in conjunction with administrators, organisations and different bodies is to monitor hate speech (Cheeseman et al., 2014: 10).
Other functions of the NCIC include promoting national identity and values, eliminating racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination and fostering national reconciliation and healing7. The role the organisation plays in an election is of significance. It has started a campaign towards a peaceful 2022 election and organised the signing of election peace pledge by relevant stakeholders.