This is a rejoinder of sorts to events currently unfolding in the Unites States following the elections in that country. For the past few weeks to date, Donald Trump refused to accept the result of the US election, as he accused media outlets that called the race for Joe Biden of colluding with the president-elect in trying to steal the White House.
For the US, centuries known for her role as the guardian angel of democratic principles, this comes as a surprise. It is continents like Africa, and a few in Asia and Eastern Europe that have been notorious for flouting the basic tenets of democracy especially in as far as accepting defeat during elections is concerned. As is the current reticent behavior and disdain of Trump towards the election results. Five years ago, during his first and only trip to Africa as US president, Barrack Obama decried the tendency by some African leaders to refuse to leave office when their terms ended.
Speaking in front of an audience of heads of states and various officials at the Mandela Hall of the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, he said: “Now, let me be honest with you – I do not understand this. I love my work. But under our constitution, I cannot run again. I can’t run again. I actually think I’m a pretty good president – I think if I ran I could win. But I can’t.” Trump himself has spread unproven allegations of electoral fraud in key states, despite repeated pushback from election officials and judges in numerous court cases. As vote tallies in crucial states appeared to be favoring Biden in the days after Election Day, Trump even demanded that states stop counting ballots.“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him,” Trump said.
In Africa, elections perform at least three important democratizing functions: They (1) help the continent build and sustain effective democratic institutions; (2) provide the people with an effective legal tool to constrain and guard the government and minimize impunity; and (3) enhance the ability of the people to change their government and bring into public service new and more energetic and effective political leaders,” so says John Mukum Mbaku Nonresident Senior Fellow – Global Economy and Development, Africa Growth Initiative.
Well, according to another commentator, Patrick Gathara, a communications consultant, writer, and award-winning political cartoonist based in Nairobi, elections constitute an important element in liberal democracy. “They are a viable means of ensuring the orderly process of leadership succession and change and an instrument of political authority and legitimation. The failure of elections or their absence largely defines the predominance of political dictatorships and personalized rule in Africa.
Africa, more than any other place under the sun has been blighted by election irregularities and incumbents refusing to leave office (just like Donald Trump today) with opposition candidates crying foul all the time. Last year, in Cameroon, President Paul Biya emerged victorious, unsurprisingly, having supposedly captured 71.28 percent of the vote. Several opposition candidates and ordinary Cameroonians pointed to massive fraud. In addition, the election was marred by high levels of insecurity and violent extremism in at least three of the country’s 10 regions—the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest regions.
In Mali, incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was reelected for a second term with 67 percent of the votes cast. Although there were allegations of irregularities, the African Union adjudged the elections credible and transparent. Other observers argued that the elections were credible but raised concerns. This election was supposed to dispel Malians’ chronic mistrust of their political institutions, which emanates from the government’s failure to deal with human rights violations, corruption, and nepotism.
At the time of going to press, Ivory Coast awaits still its presidential election results, with President Alassane Ouattara on track for a win, but the opposition have already said they will form a rival transitional government. Also, Tanzania’s opposition leader Tundu Lissu was briefly arrested recently after losing the recent election. Seven other officials were also detained. “The current wave of democratic enthusiasm has evoked a process of competitive and multiparty elections. This has provided a platform for the civil society to make political claims on the state. However, both the structure and process of elections, the former being the organizational infrastructure for managing elections and the latter, the precepts and procedures of elections, remain largely perverted. Election rigging and brigandage, violence and election annulment are common practices. The trend is towards a reversal to the old order of despotic political rulership under the guise of civil governance. Elections in their current form in most African states appear to be a fading shadow of democracy, endangering the fragile democratic project itself,” John Mukum Mbaku again.
Reader, you will agree with me that while multi-party democracy has become the norm across sub- Saharan Africa, the alternation of power between parties remains rare, which speaks of the considerable advantages (both legal and extra-legal) that incumbents hold. Since 2000, only fourteen of 51 states have seen power transferred between political parties (Benin 2006, Cabo Verde 2011, Comoros 2006, Ghana 2008, Liberia 2005, Malawi 2012, Mali 2002, Mauritania 2007, Mauritius 2000 and 2005, Sao Tome and Principe 2001, Senegal 2012, Sierra Leone 2007, Zambia 2011).Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, appears not to hold constitutional safeguards in such high esteem.Presidents that have changed their countries’ constitutions to eliminate the two-term limit include Presidents Gnassingbé (Togo), Museveni (Uganda), Déby (Chad), Biya (Cameroon), Kagame (Rwanda), the late Nkurunziza (Burundi), and el-Sisi (Egypt), just to name a few. Changing the constitution to eliminate term and/or age limits for presidents and allow the incumbent president to unconstitutionally extend his mandate has been referred to as a constitutional coup.
“It is important to note that relatively weak institutions and the absence of a democratic culture have facilitated the ability of incumbents to manipulate constitutions in the countries named in this paragraph. The hope is that, as the level of democratic development improves in these countries, such constitutional coups will become a rarity.”
In Kenya, there were some worrying indications that President Uhuru Kenyatta may be entertaining ideas about extending his State House lease. Commentators have begun to float the idea of either allowing him a currently constitutionally barred third term or extending his current term. “Both of these would require a referendum to change the constitution and, surprise, surprise, one is already mooted as part of a deal between the president and his former rival, Raila Odinga. To be fair, Kenyatta has repeatedly declared that he has no intention of hanging on to power after the end of his current term in 2020. However, given the lengths he was willing to go to retain his position in 2017, including the murder by police of nearly 70 Kenyans in actions which he would later formally commend, there is little reason to trust his words,” said a commentator on Kenyan affairs.
But elections are not always peaceful…Other pundits in political circles have commented thus: “While elections may be essential in promoting legitimacy, stability and development, they can also be deeply problematic. Elections can spark violent conflict, especially when they generate ‘winner takes all’ dynamics that raise the stakes of political competition. As the example of Kenya in 2007 illustrates, this can be especially treacherous where ethnicity or other fault lines of conflict such as region or religion determine political allegiance.”
For example, a recent study has estimated that between 1990 and 2007 one in five elections in Sub-Saharan Africa suffered significant violence and only about 40% were entirely violence-free. Significant violence here refers to violent repression (e.g. long-term high-level arrests of party leaders, consistent use of violent intimidation, limited use of murders and assassinations, and torture) and/or highly violent campaigns, in which there are repeated, coordinated physical attacks leading to 20 or more deaths.
With the US now engaged in a rivalry with China for influence on the continent, support for democracy and human rights may once again play second fiddle to securing reliable allies. In other words, the US may still prefer to stand with African states rather than African people.
“It is worth remembering that despite his flowery rhetoric in Addis Ababa, Obama had been more than happy to cuddle up to Kenya’s corrupt regime just a week earlier.” Says a political analyst. In the end, Africans must prepare for the worst even as they hope for the best.
Indeed it is this execution of Constitutional Coups and Crimes against Democracy that still remain the blight of the emerging continent of Africa. A continent where innocence is still our totem to this day.
*John Churu is a journalist and can be contacted on [email protected]
