2017 Elections That Defined Democracy in Africa and Going Forward
Africa is doing better on the quality of its governance, according to the latest report by the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG).
However, the pace of progress had slowed in the past five years compared to the previous five.
“The slowing, and in some cases, even reversing progress in a large number of countries, or in some key dimensions of governance, is worrying for the future of the continent,” he said.
Three of the four pillars that feed into the overall index: human development; sustainable economic opportunity; and participation and human rights, have improved over both five and 10 years, albeit at a slowing pace.
Researchers from the Institute For Security Studies (ISS Africa) -Julia Bello-Schünemann, Jakkie Cilliers, Zachary Donnenfeld, Ciara Aucoin and Alex Porter in their policy brief ‘African futures: key trends to 2035’ write “Democracy is still not the dominant form of government in Africa”
Their optimism though “The number of democracies in Africa is likely to increase, and levels of democracy are expected to continue to improve, even if slowly and from a relatively low base.” They cite public support for democracy in Africa as ‘particularly strong’. “However, since African countries are democratising at ever lower levels of income and education, democracy on the continent rests on fragile foundations.”
Interestingly, they observe that “The barriers to democracy are both deeply entrenched
and widespread in Africa.” “Eventually the question is if ‘output legitimacy’ will win over ‘input legitimacy’”..
Last year, Africa achieved its highest score in 11 years of tracking.
On this backdrop, 2017 witnessed more African countries conducting presidential, legislative and municipal elections.
Prof.Nic Cheeseman, Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham wrote “The last twelve months have been a confusing time for African democracy. We have seen coups that didn’t look like coups and elections that didn’t look like elections. In this sense, it was a year of illusions.”
Africa witnessed elections being held in Kenya, Rwanda, Angola, Somalia, Liberia
However, presidential elections that were to be held in The Democratic Republic of Congo have been scheduled for December of 2018. This is attributed to the ongoing conflict in the Kasai region and the need for a national registry of eligible voters and president Joseph Kabila refusing to step down.
Other elections that were witnessed in the continent were: Somali presidential election, Gambian parliamentary election, Algerian legislative election, Lesotho general election, Somaliland general election and Senegalese parliamentary election.
Notable elections were those in Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia and Angola.
Surprisingly, other developments were witnessed in Zimbabwe, Togo, Guinea-Bissau and South Africa.
The first major election saw the African Union (AU) elect Hon. Moussa Faki Mahamat (Chad) as its new Chairperson replacing the outgoing Dr. Nkosazana Zuma during the Twenty-Eighth Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union.
Rwanda
Rwanda went to the polls in August where the incumbent President Paul Kagame won a third, seven-year term since winning the country’s second election in 2010.
A constitutional amendment allowed Kagame to run for this new term and two more five-year terms after that, meaning that he could stay in power till 2034.
The National Electoral Commission’s Executive secretary Charles Munyaneza announced that the incumbent had secured 98.66 percent of votes counted from Friday’s election, the 59-year-old former guerrilla leader had secured 98.66 percent.
