Ugandan protesters call for an end to President Yoweri Museveni’s despotic rule.
Peter Busomoke/AFP via Getty Images
Trouble in Africa’s cities is due to the fact that electoral competition drives leaders to be biased towards rural areas.
Supporters of outgoing Senegalese President Macky Sall cheer during a rally ahead of presidential elections in 2019.
Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images
Africa is now formally free of colonial rule. Yet, the aim of remembering and furthering the fight for self determination remains relevant as ever.
President Pierre Nkurunziza campaigning for the presidency in 2015.
Spencer Platt/GettyImages
Will President Pierre Nkurunziza peacefully relinquish office after the May poll?
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari at a campaign rally ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Stefan Heunis/AFP via Getty Images
One year after the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, courts and not the electorate, are busy deciding actual winners of the polls.
Electoral commission officers count votes after the polls were closed during the 2019 General elections.
Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission recently deregistered some political parties, leading to debates over whether this was a step in the right direction.
Kenya’s Supreme Court upholds President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election victory following a re-run in 2017.
EFE-EPA/Daniel Irungu
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.
Peter Mutharika during his inauguration as the President of Malawi last May. A court has annnulled his election.
Amos Gumulira/AFP via Getty Images
Will the same electoral commission, so heavily criticised in the court’s ruling, improve its capacity and arrange more credible elections?
Tom Thabane has resigned as the Prime Minister of Lesotho amid a scandal over his wife’s murder.
Getty Images/Angela Weiss
Since the demand for resources far outmatches the patronage available, Lesotho’s political arena has become brutally competitive.
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.
Peacekeeper with the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC
MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti
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.
Namibian president Hage Geingob.
EPA/Siphiwe Sibeko
Namibia’s political stability so far has been vested in the dominance of Swapo. Those opposing its control face an uphill battle.
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.
A woman casts her ballot in Guinea’s presidential elections in the capital Conakry, in October 2015.
EPA/STR
Popular theories of high-level electoral conspiracy shaped the emergence of new political orientations
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi (L) and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade (R) after both signed an agreement to cease hostilities.
ANDRE CATUEIRA/EPA
The splintering in Renamo has its origins in the unexpected death last May of Afonso Dhlakama, its leader of 39 years.
Tunisians protest against tax hikes, austerity measures and increased food prices.
EPA-EFE/Mohamed Messara
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.
South Africans who receive welfare grants vote for the governing African National Congress more than any other party.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook
The survey findings show that people who had taken part in protests over the last five years were more likely to vote for opposition parties.
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.
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.
Outgoing Bissau-Guinean President Jose Mario Vaz casts his ballot in Bissau during the country’s March legislative elections.
Paulo Cunha/EPA-EFE
There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about Bissau-Guinean politics going forward.