Democracy in Africa lives despite setbacks

Supporters of the opposition Chadema party celebrate outside a polling station in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in October 2015. Tanzania’s governing CCM party candidate John Magufuli won the presidential election with 58 per cent of the vote. His main rival Edward Lowassa got 40 per cent of the ballots cast. PHOTO BY AFP  

The presidential and parliamentary elections that were supposed to be held in the Central African Republic last week, and postponed to Wednesday December 30, were to mark the end of an eventful year in Africa’s electoral calendar.

Looking back over the past 12 months, there have been momentous developments in many countries, signifying that democracy is alive and well on the continent despite the many challenges Africa has been grappling with.

Sadly, though, there were also disturbing events on the continent, including attempted coups in countries like Burundi and Burkina Faso. At the same time, the year saw the growth of the tendency of long serving leaders to seek new terms contrary to their countries’ constitutions, as has happened in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As for the referendums held in some countries, they were widely viewed as designed to make it possible for incumbents to perpetuate themselves in power.

In the meantime, expectations that the troubled South Sudan would hold its first election since it gained independence in 2011 were thwarted.

Instead the polls, originally scheduled for June, have been pushed back to 2017 as a result of the prevailing violence. Paradoxically, Seychelles held a snap presidential poll in December, having brought it forward from next year.

All in all, 2015 saw successful polls held in different countries, beginning with the presidential ones held in Zambia on January 20 to fill the void left by the death of former president Michael Sata, who died while still in office.

Come February, a general election was held in Lesotho, bringing hope to a country that had been grappling with instability for some time, and which had suffered an attempted coup.

As for the following month, it saw elections held in several countries, including Togo, where a presidential poll was held on March 5, with incumbent president Fauré Gnassingbé retaining power.

The beginning of April saw Sudan holding a general election that saw long serving president Omar el Bashir retaining power. Apart from Sudan and Togo, incumbents retained power in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.

As for Nigeria, it held a presidential poll on March 28, for the first time seeing a peaceful transition between civilian governments. The election had been slated for February 14, and was among several African polls that were postponed for one reason or the other.

Significantly, the election marked the first time since independence in 1960 that Nigerian voters peacefully voted to transfer political power from one party to another.

Moreover, the orderly poll was a welcome departure from a tradition of violence and rigging that had bedevilled the country since military rule ended in 1999. The poll was the country’s sixth presidential one since the birth of democracy following decades of military rule.

In May, there were elections in quite a few countries, including Burundi, where the controversial election of incumbent president Pierre Nkurunziza saw the onset of a period of mounting instability that the country is still grappling with as it reportedly teeters on the verge of total collapse.

On May 24 Ethiopia held a general election, while Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania held presidential elections in October. In Tanzania a formidable opposition coalition failed to unseat Africa’s longest serving ruling party, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

Also in October presidential polls were held in Guinea, a country that has for a long time been steeped in often violent tensions between the ruling party and the opposition, leading to many postponements of elections.