THE EMERGENCE OF NEW MODERN POLITICAL PARTIES IN AFRICA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEM IN GUINEA-BISSAU

Historically, Guinea-Bissau is a small West African state that depends on external aid to secure survival. The political situation in Guinea-Bissau has been marked by political and governance instability after the country's independence. Thus, this article aims to analyze what are the factors that contributed to the emergence of new modern political parties in Guinea-Bissau from 1994 to 2019. For this purpose, the case study method on the experience of Guinea-Bissau and a qualitative analysis were used. Thus, this study concluded that Guinea-Bissau needs to make a real reform in the party system to promote the emergence and consolidation of organized and strongly institutionalized party affiliations, which are financed through a transparent mechanism and capable of empowering their leaderships for political functions. In addition, it is essential to establish a regulatory mechanism enabling party funds to be distributed only to parties that achieve a certain percentage of votes, as a way of achieving greater political participation of electorates in political party decision-making and reducing the very high rate of fragmentation in the Guinean party system. This will enable greater competition between political parties and guarantee the highest quality of democracy in the country.