From Movement to Party: Creating the Political Party Structure and Organization

The Importance of Clear Constitution and Bylaws

Dr. Peter Koeppinger

A. What is a party? And what is a party supposed to do? - 2 -

(1) The party as a legal personality in order to be permitted to participate in elections

(2) The party as a community of persons with similar objectives

(3) The party as a player in political decision making

(4) The need to clarify the relations between the MILF as a liberation movement and the party

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Fundamental questions to be answered by you:1. What are our main objectives?2. What type of members do we want to have and

what shall be their rights and obligations?3. Do we want to be an open and democratic

organization or do we have a personal or institutional patron?

4. Do we want to be a top down or a bottom up organization?

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5. What type of activities do we want to have – only electoral, general political or even social activities?

6. How do we want to finance our activities: membership dues, patronage, projects…

7. How do we want to resolve internal problems?

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Here are the International standard criteria for democratic political parties:

1.Based on dues paying members who control and run the party

2.Clear and detailed ideological orientation and programmatic profile

3. Internal democratic structure and procedures4.Ongoing activities on local/regional/national level5. Democratic political parties – citizens and political

office holders as members

Some more questions to you: - 6 -

1. Who shall be members of the MILF organized party?

2. What shall be the role, the rights and obligations of the members in this party?

3. How many members shall the party have?4. What shall be the criteria and preconditions for

interested citizens to become members of the party?

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6. What shall be the relation between the MILF and their political party, what role shall the leaders of MILF play in this party?

7. Shall the members of the party pay dues, how much, how shall they be collected?

8. How shall members of the party be recruited?9. What shall be the role of the normal party

members with regard to the political positions of the party, how shall they be involved?

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10. Will the members of the party have the right to have their own ideas on the issues on which the party has developed political positions?

11. What are their rights and obligations if they differ from the party positions?

12. What are the rules on limiting damage to the party by members opposing positions, and which type of reconciliation and conflict resolution measures can be installed for such problems?

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(1) Procedure: Break up into three groupsElect Coordinator and Presenter of Results(2) Task:

Try to come up with answers to the seven questions on page 3 and 4, 6, 7 and 8Report to the plenary after 30 minutes with 5 minutes per group

And this should be the structure of Constition and By-Laws - 10 -

1. Who we are2. What are our objectives3. Who are our members and their rights and

obligations4. What are our activities5. How are our internal structures and procedures6. How do we finance ourselves7. How do we solve problems and conflicts