This has been described as ‘the year of elections’ and as ‘the ultimate election year’. But this does not mean it will be the year of democracy.
The Platform for African Democrats met in the Parliamentary Precinct in Cape Town on 22-23 March 2024, bringing together over 50 political and civil society leaders from across the African continent.
But this organisation is not about advancing the interests of the 216 million people who live within their borders. Instead, it seeks to develop strategies for liberation movements to hold on to political power – parties that have already been in uninterrupted power for a combined 324 years. It is inconceivable to them that opposition parties are wholly indigenous to their countries and have strong support among most of the people.
The setting up in 2022 of this political training school in Tanzania by the Chinese Communist Party – in collaboration with southern Africa’s liberation moments – should be viewed with great concern, and not just by China’s external continental competitors.
With the end of the Cold War, many of the repressive regimes had lost their principal sponsor with the end of the Soviet Union and succumbed to their people’s wishes for greater openness. Of this number, five fall into the “not free” category as defined by Freedom House, nine are partly free, and five – Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa – fall into the “free” category.The Malian election has already been postponed indefinitely although in Senegal,
A variety of tactics are used to retain power and the illusion of democracy: local NGOs can be pressured through tax and other inspections and audits, with stringent registration procedures, and through clampdowns on foreign donor flows, while government-sponsored NGOs proliferate. They play to the need for stability while buttering up supporters with contracts, social grants and pensions, and jobs – a recipe for widespread corruption and stagnation.
Techniques include gerrymandering districts; tampering with voters’ rolls where the voting dead can number into the millions to boost ruling party numbers; delving into voting records ; redistribution of the spoils in the form of contracts and goods to supporters; strangulation of resources for opponents, including through intimidation of funders; clamping down on foreign funding to NGOs, and control of media assets.
As William Dobson has noted about Venezuela under Hugo Chávez, this begets a “unique paradox: with each election, the country loses more of its democracy”.There are increasing dangers in the temptation of authoritarianism, not least in governance, accountability, transparency and human rights.