Supporters of Zambia’s president-elect Edgar Lungu in 2016. The country is known for peaceful polls, but this one was marked by clashes.
Dawood Salim/AFP via Getty Images
Political legacies generated during authoritarian rule have a tendency to transcend into the multiparty era.
Sudan’s ousted President Omar al-Bashir appears in court in Khartoum on December 14, 2019. He was later sentenced to two years in prison for corruption.
Photo by Mahmoud Hajaj/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The ICC must not further destroy its credibility by cooperating with the sorts of bad actors who should be before a court themselves.
Malawi’s President elect Peter Mutharika waves to supporters during the swearing in ceremony in Blantyre in May last year after the contentious poll.
AMOS Gumulira/AFP via Getty Images
A new round of elections offers an opportunity to strengthen civil and political freedoms.
The results of the Namibian election reflect growing discontent among voters with the way the country is being run.
EFE/EPA
For the first time since independence, Namibia’s ruling party has suffered electoral setbacks in the midst of economic and political crisis.
The government must encourage demands for the creation of new states to be an outcome of negotiations.
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In a country where there are more than 80 ethnic groups, the territorial solution isn’t a feasible solution.
Mokgweetsi Masisi being sworn in as the elected President of Botswana by Chief Justice Terrence Rannowane. With him is his wife Neo.
Mmegi
The Khamas have dominated Botswana’s politics since the 1870s, but they are now a discredited, spent force.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s increasingly repressive government uses colonial-era laws to silence dissent.
EFE-EPA/ EPA/Phillipe Wojazer
The unstable authoritarian pathway that many post-colonial African states followed was facilitated by the way in which European empires undermined democratic elements within African societies.
Many Zimbabweans have turned to hawking to keep the wolf from the door as the economic crisis in the country deepens.
EFE-EPA
It’s time for a new approach as it becomes increasingly clear that protests won’t topple the Zanu-PF government.
Analysing South Africa’s recent elections offers some useful insights into the country’s democracy.
EPA-EFE/KIM LUDBROOK
The election’s result endorses other evidence that trust in South Africa’s constitutional settlement and its political institutions is steadily declining.
Newspapers in Swahili and in English in Dar es Salaam. The media is increasingly not trusted in Tanzania.
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In a surprising change in trends, citizens in many African countries increasingly support government restrictions of press freedom.
Senegalese women cast their ballots in the presidential elections in February.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Africa’s democracies have grown stronger during a period in which the world is backsliding on democracy.
Unyielding protesters put an end to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s 26-year old authoritarian rule.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
The role of the military in toppling authoritarian rulers, after intensive popular protests, raises questions about how the AU’s policy against coups should be applied.
The Ugandan government is one of many on the continent that’s overseen the erosion of media freedom.
EPA/Dai Kurokawa
The biggest threats are the concentration of media ownership and attempts to legislate the online media environment.
Repression is on the rise in Zambia under President Edgar Lungu.
EPA/EFE/Abir Sultan
Democratic and authoritarian countries are moving further away from each other.
Nigerians get ready to cast their vote on February 16.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
More than half of Nigeria’s 51% registered voters are aged between 18-35 years.
The French National Assembly, one of the Western institutions Western academics believe African countries should aspire to.
EPA-EFE/Yoan Valat
The argument isn’t whether African democracies are better than those in the West. It’s simply that the idea of “real” and “not yet real” democracies expresses a colonial mentality, not reality.
A coup attempt failed in Gabon, following President Ali Bongo’s extended illness and absence.
EPA/Stringer
Gabon is a wealthy and stable country and this might explain why the January 7 coup attempt failed.
Supporters of DRC opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, celebrate his presidential election win.
EPA-EFE/Hugh Kinsella Cunningham
Felix Tshisekedi may have clinched DRC’s presidency but the road ahead won’t be a smooth one.
A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during a runoff presidential election in Bamako, Mali on Aug. 12, 2018.
Reuters/Luc Gnago
Elections are supposed to hold politicians accountable: Officials who fear losing their seat will work harder for voters. But in some countries, political competition actually makes government worse.
Days before their Oct. 28 presidential election, Brazilians protested news that supporters of right-wing front-runner Jair Bolsonaro had used WhatsApp to spread false information about his opponents.
Reuters/Nacho Doce
Facebook retired its ‘Move fast and break things’ slogan – perhaps because, as new research from Brazil confirms, democracy is among the things left broken by online misinformation and fake news.