This question was very unpopular with candidates as majority of them avoided it.  The very few that attempted it did not do justice to it.  Those who could have scored good marks lost the chance by failing to define an opposition party as the second largest political party in the legislature or coalition of political parties, which could not secure majority electoral votes to form the government.

Moreover, very few candidates could give the required four functions of an opposition party to score full marks in the (b) part.  These shortcomings accounted for the very poor performance in the question.  The following were some of the functions expected from candidates’ responses:

• it opposes objectionable policies of the government by its voice and votes;
• it offers alternative policies and programmes to the electorate;
• it influences government by all acceptable methods to modify its policies;
• it creates a favourable atmosphere for itself to win the next general election through political education and enlightenment;
• it checks the excesses of government e.g. Human Rights abuses;
• it protects the rights of minority groups; etc.