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Africa - presidential elections'Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable development' according to former U N Secretary General, Kofi Annan. But how do countries establish good governance? The short answer is that this can never be guaranteed but under 'democracy' - the system of open government where free and fair elections are held periodically - there is the mechanism for getting rid of governments that are not performing allowing other political parties the opportunity to put their policies into place. And nowhere is good governance needed more today than in sub-Saharan Africa. Here poverty abounds. Unfortunately, according to World Audit, only 11 nations out of 48 can be relied upon to hold free and fair elections. As a result many leaders and governing parties in Africa have become entrenched meaning that no matter how poorly they perform they continue in power with only the occasional change of leader altering the political landscape slightly. Proof of this can be found in the leviathans that today are still in power:- Omar Bongo in Gabon since 1967; Muammar Gaddafi in Libya since 1969; Obiang Nguema in Equatorial Guinea and Jose dos Santos in Angola since 1979; Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe since 1980; Hosni Mubarak since 1981 and Paul Biya in Cameroon since 1982. Many other countries in Africa may not have leaders serving so long but governing parties in all too many have never been defeated in national presidential elections. Nevertheless, holding governments to account is paramount in the fight against poverty. Therefore, on this page just1WORLD will produce a yearly timetable of forthcoming presidential elections in the countries of Africa. As each country's election draws closer we shall show what happened in the previous presidential election and present the main opposition candidates/parties in the contest about to be fought. After the election we shall give the result and report on the findings of the international election observers sent there to monitor the entire process.
March - Congo Republic April - Algeria, South Africa May - Angola, Malawi October - Botswana, Tunisia November - Namibia December - Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Niger Date not decided - Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire
December 7 - Ghana - President John Kufuor stands down after serving his constitutionally mandated 2 four year terms. Ghana is perhaps the best example of a true democracy on the mainland of sub-Saharan Africa with the ruling party having been defeated as recently as 2000. This will be Ghana's 5th multi-party poll. Voter registration for this poll has started which should see a close fight between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) where former foreign minister Nana Akufo-Addo (64) is the candidate and the main opposition party of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) led again by John Atta Mills (64) who was vice-president to Jerry Rawlings from 1997 - 2000. Also in the mix is the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) founded by independence leader Kwame Nkrumah and now led by Papa Kwesi Nduom who has held various posts in this last government. There are 5 other candidates. Ghana has achieved an economic growth rate of 5%+ since 2000 and has been given a B+ credit rating by international credit agencies. The final outcome gave Akufo-Addo 49.1% of the vote whilst Atta Mills secured a creditable 47.9%. The turnout was 68%. The run-off took place on Sunday 28 December. After a hold-up due to a problem with ballot papers in Tain John Atta Mills won the presidency at his third attempt securing 50.23% of the votes. Nana Akufo-Addo got 49.77% and the turnout was 72.9%. This is second victory in a row for the opposition party in Ghana at the end of an outgoing president's term of office. International electoral observers gave this election the thumbs up.
Previous elections October 30 - Zambia - with the sad and sudden death of President Levy Mwanawasa, an interim presidential election is due to be held to elect a new president. Until then vice-president Rupiah Banda has become acting president and will contest this election as the candidate of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) party. He will be opposed by 2 men who contested the presidency in 2006. Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front secured 29% of the vote in 2006 whilst Hakainde Hichilema of the United Democratic Front got 25%. A fourth candidate Brigadier-General Miyanda will contest the election for the Heritage Party. The victor in the election will lead Zambia until September, 2011 when another presidential election will be due. In order to show transparency the Electoral Commission of Zambia has announced that results will be posted outside polling stations so that election agents can endorse the results before they are submitted to Lusaka. International election observers will also be on hand to monitor the election. Michael Sata took an early lead in the counting opening up a sizeable gap over Rupiah Banda. However, when all the votes were counted, it was found that Banda had miraculously squeezed ahead of Sata winning 40% of the vote to Sata's 38%. Hakainde Hichilema received 20% with Godfrey Miganda on 1%. March 29 - Zimbabwe - presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections are all happening at the same time as 84 year old Robert Mugabe seeks to extend his 28 year rule. In the presidential contest he will again be opposed by Morgan Tsvangirai leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. However, another strong candidate has entered the ring in the shape of Simba Makoni, a former Zanu-PF finance minister who has decided to risk everything to try to get a change of government. More than 50% of the votes cast will be needed to win the presidential election in the first round. Neither Europe nor the US will be allowed election observers to oversee the elections. Long delays in announcing the results have characterised these elections but with all the parliamentary results now in it can be seen that Robert Mugabe can no longer claim to have won the presidential election. In the parliamentary poll the MDC have secured 99 seats against Zanu-PF with 97. In third place comes the breakaway MDC party lead by Arthur Mutambara with 10 seats followed by independent candidate Jonathan Moyo with 1. Three seats will have to be contested again due to the deaths of 3 candidates. Almost one month later the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission finally released the results of the presidential election giving Tsvangirai 48% of the votes to Mugabe's 43%. In truth this election was almost certainly won outright by Tsvangirai but nevertheless the scene was set for a run-off on June 27 - three months after the first round. This time round Mugabe though was determined that there would be no mistakes and through a process of brutality and intimidation beat the Zimbabwean people into submission. And such was the venom released against the MDC supporters that Morgan Tsvangirai decided to pull out of the poll just days before the run-off in order to try to rein in the violence against his supporters. Not surprisingly Mugabe insisted the election go ahead and not surprisingly he won with 83% of the vote. This mockery of the Zimbabwean people was then taken a step further when at the semi-annual meeting of the African Union held in Egypt African leaders voted in favour of a coalition government in Zimbabwe in order to bring the country back together. After the terrible ordeals suffered by MDC supporters this suggestion is a travesty and once again the African Union has failed to act decisively in favour of justice. At present in a deal brokered by former South African president Mbeki, Mugabe retains the presidency with Tsvangirai becoming executive prime minister with Mugabe chairing a cabinet in which the opposition MDC parties have a majority of one. But even here the haggling continues. The position is now stale mate. Mugabe intends to retain executive power at all costs whilst as long as he retains the presidency OECD countries will refuse to help put the country back together again. And the suffering of the Zimbabwean people will continue. |
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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN 2009