The Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Faculty of Management Sciences’ Centre for African Governance and Development (CAGD) hosted a webinar titled: Election and election process in Africa: Whither the Democratic Ethos? via Microsoft Teams on 2 June 2022.

Giving the context of the webinar and welcoming the guest, the Director of the Centre, Prof Ivan Gunass Govender, described the CAGD as a new entity that engages in various futuristic issues in terms of governance and development in Africa. He said that the webinar was an example of the focal issues of the Centre. According to him, the issue of election and change of government in Africa was becoming more and more relevant given the various news items from different part of the continent. For example, in 2020, there were three military coups in Africa. In 2021, there were four successful military takeovers across the continent, in Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan. Thus, in the words of the United Nations Secretary General, Africa is experiencing a coup epidemic. He therefore expressed the need to “start a conversation to protect democracy and what is it that we need to do or not to do and hopefully our guest speaker and discuss and all delegates will contribute and to move forward in this discourse”.

The guest presenter, Abimbola Adesoji, a Professor of History at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, focused on the challenges associated with the conduct and administration of election in Africa. He noted that the process of election in Africa has not always been fair, characterised as it were by myriads of problems. He said, “Politicians were always desperate to win by whatever means possible thus necessitating some arm-twisting and manipulation of different kinds. The desire for self-perpetuation was a common phenomenon. The perception of opposition as a luxury that is difficult to tolerate, has made being in the opposition a suicide mission, and thus not encouraging”.

Prof Abimbola indicated that elections should be free, fair and competitive. He further relayed those elections should provide an opportunity to address chronic mistrust of political institutions, emanating from the government’s failure to deal with human rights violation, corruption and nepotism, pervasive poverty, high level of material deprivations and political and economic marginalisation, promoting political and economic inclusiveness and protecting human rights which are considered as the foundation of effective ways to fight terrorism and other security threats. “Compounding the problem in some parts of Africa is the problem of insecurity which in a way has induced military coups in such places as Mali and Burkina Faso,” he added.

Prof Abimbola contend that given the plethora of challenges that election and the electoral process have to contend with, it was apparent that the right of participation, freedom of choice, respect for rule of law, equality before the law as well as accountability have all been compromised with wider implications. These include the possibility of the continuation of the ‘business as usual’ syndrome in Africa for a long time to come despite regular conduct of elections, given its jaundiced nature. This would possibility make the continent to be saddled with unwanted and unprepared leaders who might emerge through fraudulent electoral processes. Consequently, this would slow down democratization because democratic ethos has been compromised. e slowing down of democratization given its compromise. The inability to address the bourgeoning legitimacy crises in the continent would have its effect on the festering security challenge as the political elites promote violence in the conduct of elections. This would have complicate growth as the acute struggle for power among the political elites would stagnate development-oriented agenda.

One of the discussants, Prof Mzkayise Shakespare Binza, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Affairs and Research at the Walter Sisulu University, South Africa, spoke on the menace of electoral violence in Africa. He south to know if there were comparative studies on electoral process in Africa and advanced democracies. He added that if the rate of electoral violence and maladministration is peculiar to Africa, there was the need to extend research activities to unravel the factors and the possible solutions to the problem. He said, “For example, we have now in South Africa a situation where the ruling party is going for practicing their own internal democracies….and one can actually pre-empt that in 2024, the number of deaths will be then doubled. And then how to minimize this for example? The second issue that we basically need to be looking at is a demarcation of the of the definition of free and fair election”.

Prof Binza sought to know if Africa was ready to introduce that system that gave Barack Obama a chance to be the president of America. “Can we have something like this? Can we foresee a situation where Mr Chili, for example will be the President of the country one day without getting into these political processes? As the contexts are changing, we need to redefine what “free and fair” elections mean and can it afford any individual irrespective of race and gender an opportunity to become president.

He also raised another point which is the need to limit the age of the candidates. “To also look at reviews, the constitutions and these constitutions may not be the constitutions of the political parties, but also the constitutions of the countries themselves, because the constitutions of the countries make provision that the President will have only two terms. Beyond that, the Constitution says no, and it is that premise that led to President Thabo Mbeki for example, not to see the third term of President of the ANC,” he said.

Another discussant, Prof Surendra (Colin) Thakur, stressed the need to execute a free and fair election in Africa. Prof Thakur is the Director of the Short Course Unit (SCU) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). He defined a free and fair election as “when everybody, especially the losers accept the results! The conundrum is always been the loser which why politicians manipulate regulations to ensure that that they don’t lose. I want to if I may just add some historical context to two elections in Africa, I think we spend a lot of time bashing ourselves and for good reason. We some bad people that do evil things at electoral times for selfish reasons. We know this we but it’s important for us as Africans to remind ourselves what the rest of the world is doing – consider the USA and January 6. This is to remind them that these things are happening in the rest of the world” he said. He conveyed going forward, there is a vital need to start educating the nations by educating and inculcating democratic values within the youth.

A robust discussion took place with reflections on a number of critical issues with a recommendation to further study free and fair elections not only in Africa but comparing it with what exists in America and in Europe. It was proposed that a think-tank, constituting present delegates be formed under the auspices of the Centre for African Governance and Development to pursue these issues further.

Pictured: Discussant, Prof Surendra (Colin) Thakur.

Waheeda Peters