Despite major strides African governments have taken in holding scheduled elections in the last two decades, there are still those who regard the exercise as a favour to their people and foreign governments, says Keto Segwai
Africa never ceases to amaze. Just the other day, President François Bozize of the Central African Republic (CAR) threatened to call off the elections scheduled for March 2010 if somebody else did not fund the process.
Fortunately, some donors that included the European Union and the United States stepped in to avert this unwarranted affront on democracy, by offering to fund the CAR poll. Admittedly, CAR could be one of the poorest countries in Africa, but it is also true that the country is endowed with considerable resources that include virgin rain forests, minerals such as diamonds, exotic wildlife such as lowland gorillas and forest elephants, and a great agricultural potential – and of course, the country’s critical human resource that stands at 4.4 million people.
The major letdown in this equation has undoubtedly been the country’s political leadership over the years, specifi cally its reluctance to allow the citizens to freely choose their true leaders. The country has had four coups since independence. It has been lead by one of the continent’s more bizarre men – the self-styled Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa, whose reign was not only the embodiment of brutality, but also that of absurdity.
The CAR soldiers have blurred lines between the barracks and the corridors of elective offi ce. Bozize has a chequered history himself. In 2003, he staged a coup against Ange-Félix Patassé, the victor of the 1993 poll. But with military takeovers becoming increasingly out of vogue and being punitively censured by the AU’s Peace and Security Council, Bozize instituted an election in 2005, which he won. When an election is a right, Despite major strides African governments have taken in holding scheduled elections in the last two decades, there are still those who regard the exercise as a favour to their people and foreign governments, says Keto Segwai It is the impunity with which most African leaders try to thwart the electoral process that amazes. Ironically, the determination to cling on to power by frustrating a fair and free poll is met by an equal resolve from rivals to crowbar the incumbent out of power. Hence the never-ending cycle of coups and counter-coups.
Notwithstanding the shenanigans by Bozize, the majority of African countries that were scheduled to conduct their elections in 2009 did so, though with mixed results.
Algeria set the ball rolling in April by holding their presidential elections that were won expectedly by incumbent Abdul-Aziz Boutefl ika. These were followed by the highly charged South African elections that saw former vice-president Jacob Zuma ascending to power.
In May, Malawi went to the polls, the fourth since the fall of the long-reigning life president, Kamuzu Banda. Bingu wa Mutharika parried with John Tembo (of the Banda era) and won, after the two-term president Bakili Muluzi was technically shut out from the race. In early July, Republic of the Congo took its turn at the poll, culminating in the long-serving Denis Sassou- Nguesso retaining the presidency. The main opposition candidate, Pascal Lissouba, was excluded from that election and opposition had boycotted the poll. Still in July, Guinea-Bissau also held an election amid a tense political atmosphere following the assassinations of both the president, João Viera and the army chief, General Tagme Na Wai. Malam Bacai Sanha defeated Kumba Yala (Mohamed Yala Embalo).
In August, Gabon called an ad hoc election following the death of the long-reigning Omar Bongo. The late president’s son, Ali Bongo won the subsequent election against the opposition’s Pierre Mamboundou and Mba Obame. Africa’s oldest multi-party democracy, Botswana went to the poll in October and Ian Khama’s party, which has been in power since independence in 1966, won against the opposition’s Otsweletse Moupo and Gilson Saleshando.
The month of October also saw the incumbent Tunisian president, Ben Ali winning by 89.62% against Mohamed Bouchiha and others. Towards the close of October, the Mozambican president, Armando Guebuza once again defeated former rebel leader Alphonso Dlakhama. As we were going to print, Namibia was in the throes of pitched electioneering slated for 28 November, with Hifi kepunye Pohamba paring-off brickbats from his erstwhile comrades, Hidipo Hamutenya and Ben Ulenga .
In Equatorial Guinea, Obiang Nguema had on 16 October caught his political opponents off guard by bringing the dates of the poll initially scheduled for 2010, to 29 November. Obiang, who has been in power since 1979, was expected to spar with opposition leader, Plácido Micó Abogo. However, other scheduled African elections failed to take off in Angola, Senegal, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Madagascar and the autonomous region of Somaliland.
While acknowledging that the road to democratisation is a perilous one for many an African government, the least they could do is to respect the right of their people to elect their leaders.