In a political environment where voters are increasingly attuned to instances of polling malpractice, African states are grudgingly adopting technology as a barrier to election fraud.
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Articles on Elections in Africa
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Attempts to deepen democracy in Africa by limiting presidential terms to two have not entirely quashed a culture of entitlement to rule. Glimpses of it persist, much against citizens’ wishes.
Regional power Ecowas, which has just seen off yet another dictator in Yahya Jammeh, started off with a tame agenda 42 years ago. But it was soon shaped by civil wars, military coups and despots
SADC’s credibility is at stake. Its lack of political will in acting decisively against despots is at odds with the African Union’s goal of promoting legitimate governance on the continent.
The Gambian election dispute is not the first that ECOWAS has confronted. Côte d’Ivoire’s 2010 presidential election is a case in point. There it resorted to military action to enforce the outcome.
After two decades of political dominance, the electoral performance of the ANC is at its lowest since it became the governing party of South Africa in 1994. But is the party really unraveling?
The proposed new constitution would allow Alassane Ouattara to remain as president. Opposition parties see this move as a constitutional “coup” that will also protect his allies.
National electoral commissions are crucial in shaping public perceptions of how well democracy is working. Poor electoral management can enable fraud and produce political alienation.
Gabon has the lowest trust ratings of any election commission among the 36 African countries surveyed by Afrobarometer.
South Africa’s watershed local elections have resulted in upsets for the ANC in key metropoles. But will the new, minority coalition regimes live up to their mandate of providing basic services?
Zambia’s Edgar Lungu shouldn’t consider his presidential victory to mean business as usual in the management of the economy; nor an opportunity to waste and plunder.
Many municipalities in the South Africa don’t function properly because of poor management and administrative capacity. They don’t have enough appropriately qualified and experienced staff.
Various commentators have wrongly over the last 22 years said that black people voted blindly for ANC governments. There’s no better example why the academy needs a dramatic post-colonial overhaul.
As Zambia prepares to go to the polls again the entire party system is in flux, electoral violence has been worryingly frequent and the country’s democratic credentials are increasingly in doubt
South Africa’s struggling economy may have played a big role in determining the outcome of the 2016 local government elections, but the future direction of economic policy remains uncertain.
For more than 20 years the ANC’s electoral support has appeared unyielding to the obvious weaknesses of its performance in government. To fall below 60% is psychologically significant for the party.
The opposition Democratic Alliance is hopeful that the African National Congress will fail to win a majority in three metros. This will open the door for it to rule in coalition with smaller parties.
In previous elections speculation in South Africa focused on the likely size of the ruling ANC’s majority. This time the question on people’s minds is: will the ANC win or lose Nelson Mandela Bay?
Unscrupulous politicians are adept at using regressive story lines that feed insecurities. That could be dangerous ahead of South Africa’s hotly-contested municipal elections.
Some of the factors behind the riots by ANC supporters in Tshwane are not new. They include gripes within the governing party about its process for choosing mayors and divisions over Jacob Zuma.
Top contributors
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Professor of Democracy, University of Birmingham
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Lecturer in African History, Queen Mary University of London
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Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor in Political Science, University of South Africa
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Research Associate, Dept of Anthropology & Development Studies and Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, University of Johannesburg
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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
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Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg
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Director of the Leaders of Africa Institute and Research Affiliate with Davidson College, Davidson College
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Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria
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Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa (UNISA), University of South Africa
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Associate Professor, International Development Studies; Associate Dean, Menno Simons College, University of Winnipeg
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Head of Department, Public and Environmental Law Department, University of Limpopo
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Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of Technology
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Director & SARChI Research Chair: Political Economy of Migration in the SADC Region, University of Pretoria
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Associate Professor, Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD), Nelson Mandela University
