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Explaining `Minor' Party Nominations in Sub-Saharan Africa

To what extent do parties in Africa behave in ways similar to parties in new democracies elsewhere in the world? I examine nominations by the `minor' opposition parties to the single member districts for the legislative elections in Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia. Using binary logit analysis, I found that generally the number of candidates running in a contest and the use of an `electoral arithmetic' by the parties explains whether they chose to nominate a candidate in a particular electoral district. However, the social demographic characteristics of districts appear to have little impact on whether or not a party nominates a candidate.