Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission recently deregistered some political parties, leading to debates over whether this was a step in the right direction.
By pushing their usually valid complaints onto the streets and the courts, opposition leaders deny governments the popular goodwill and international credibility they need to govern effectively.
The independent strategic review, now before the Security Council, recognises many of the challenges ahead. But it appears overly sanguine about what can be achieved within a three-year period.
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.
Western perceptions of what’s happening in Tunisia differ sharply with Tunisia’s daily reality: the truth is that its political transformation is in trouble.
The election’s result endorses other evidence that trust in South Africa’s constitutional settlement and its political institutions is steadily declining.
It’s an achievement in itself that Malawi is holding its sixth multi-party national elections since its transition from dictatorship under former President Kamuzu Banda.
Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State