Africa’s history of electoral democracy is too short to tell, unlike centuries-old sheer practices in the global north. Despite persistent disrupting continental and external factors, Africa shows a commendable consistency in sticking to routine elections that need reinforcements. To make sure Africa paves the way to reinforce its free and free election understanding the persisting pitfalls and recognizing the changing features is paramount. This paper argues that Africa’s prospect of sustainable political stability and economic prosperity lies in the successful operationality of one of the democratic traditions, electoral democracy. The practice ensures the popular sovereignty of the nation and guarantees a peaceful power transfer.
Persisting Drawbacks
Detrimental challenges continue haunting Africa’s effort to establish a viable institutional democratic tradition where electoral democracy holds the main stake. The persisting challenges that are worth highlighting are three.
The first challenge that arise from within the continent has to do with the overwhelming anti-democratic behaviors spread across the nation, constitutional coup. And, constitutions, widely recognized as the supreme law of nation-states, happen to be the prime victims of the anti-democratic behaviors of African statesmen. Constitutions in Africa, arguably, represent, the most vulnerable social contract that authoritarian governments easily play with.
Undermining the constitution in Africa comes in different forms and occasions while electoral democracy marks one when leaders intend to change term limits as elections approach. At the conclusion of their current terms in office, several African incumbents characteristically move to alter clauses of a constitution to remove any restriction that precludes them from extending tenures through ostensibly legal means.
According to the African Center for Strategic Studies, statemen of some 13 African countries have managed to alter term limit restrictions since 2015 enabling 14 leaders to continue in power after their term limit expired. Overall, 56 percent of African states sustain the undemocratic tradition of occupying offices without properly putting a defined end to their terms or violating the limits by committing extraconstitutional extensions.
Second, comes the Nation’s immeasurably poor involvement in electoral democratic processes. Two factors explain why the masses in Africa are not actively participating. The low literacy rate the African continent continues to suffer from remains a persisting challenge impairing electoral democracy. Researches that study political behaviors revealed a positive correlation between literacy and voter participation. The lower the literacy rates the smaller the voter participation. This has for long been followed by a culture of distancing oneself from politics due to fear. Hostile political atmospheres that put citizens' lives in danger preclude Africans from participating in democratic rights importantly electing their representatives. A research publication that used data from 21 electoral democracies in Africa revealed that citizens are less likely to turn out to vote out of fear related to the election process and the violence that ensues.
The third, but not the least persistent challenge is an issue of inclusiveness, a practice that threatens Africa’s young multi-party politics. In many cases, Africa’s ruling parties tend to compete in an election that excludes, through several methods, opposition parties. Despite commendable efforts that transformed the African continent in terms of embracing a multiparty system in the 1990s states are yet dragging foot practically. Over the years since then, the observations indicate the difficulties incumbent parties experience in living with a multi-party-political system, especially during elections. Incumbent governing regimes utilize resources to exclude rivals and easily win the election systematically. As such, the nation of Africans remains foreign to election results that bring new parties to offices through democratic elections.
New Realities
Post-independence Africa’s record of free and fair elections is not just a history of challenges but also a promising one established on remarkable new realities. The emerging realities that constitute the social discourse of the political realm need to be recognized and built upon for the betterment of the continent’s young democracy. Three of these everlasting new realities are worth highlighting.
Among the leading new realities is the widely held public belief that elections have now become an established democratic practice. Elections are being held across the continent with a growing number of activities that in particular aim to avoid any potential reverse to autocracy and ensure better qualities of the process.
According to the Afrobarometer measure based on national surveys in 39 African countries, most Africans endorse elections as the best method for choosing their leaders. As such electoral democracy triumphs over any other form of occupying African states’ offices. And there is a commendable convergence of forces to utterly reject undemocratic processes of seizing power. Sure, inconsistencies and weak performances could characterize Africa’s elections, nonetheless, Africans accepted the free and fair elections as routine and essential way of legitimizing political power.
Then comes the institutional factors that strengthen the changing nature of African elections comprising the emerging new realities. Consolidated regional efforts that bring states together have been producing strong democratic forces featuring a strong and bold presence of relevance. Regional democratic forces such as ECOWAS represent a growing positive force that only legitimize governments that occupy offices through the exercise of popular sovereignty. Despite being weak in applying tough measures to punish undemocratic practices within its scope of jurisdiction, ECOWAS established itself as a key exemplary subregional intergovernmental institution widely recognized to stand for upholding free and fair elections.
New realities related to elections in Africa also featured in terms of changes not in leadership but in developments. In election periods incumbents focus on rhetoric showing citizens their efforts to change the countries for the better through bringing up finished projects and improved services. The debates that usually engulf elections bring issues related to the level of achievements done and the promises incorporated in the vast plans to be materialized if elected.
Concluding Remark
Africans are far from losing faith in free and fair elections key factor in consolidating democracy and numbers tell this. According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 35 percent of the continent’s countries carry out either presidential or general elections in 2024. At this level of democratic experience, just a few decades away from the devastating colonization, the important focus should be on enabling Africa to sustain its young free and fair elections. Putting Africa’s election on the scale of a quality electoral democracy which advanced democracies still struggle to achieve it.
References
Five worrying signs of Africa’s poor election quality: https://issafrica.org/iss-today/five-worrying-signs-of-africa-s-poor-election-quality
Africa’s 2024 Elections: Challenges and Opportunities to Regain Democratic Momentum: https://africacenter.org/spotlight/2024-elections/
2024 elections in Africa: 180 million people are eligible to vote: https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/news/2024/2024-elections-africa-180-million-people-eligible-vote
Elections in Africa: A Data Handbook: https://academic.oup.com/book/42009
Skepticism marks weakening support for election: https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/News-release_Scepticism-marks-weakening-support-for-elections-in-Africa-Afrobarometer-2feb24.pdf
Africa’s presidents and the term limit controversy: https://gga.org/africas-presidents-and-the-term-limit-controversy/
The effect of education on voter's turnout in African presidential elections: https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-19-00872.html
Fear of campaign violence and support for democracy and autocracy: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07388942211026319
The Changing Nature of Elections in Africa: Impact on Peacebuilding: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-46636-7_10
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