Election Malpractice's
In election around Africa for the past few have been far from what one will would call smoothed transition.
In the early 1990s saw a wave of competitive multiparty elections in Africa. These contests can be described as "founding" elections in the sense that they marked for various countries a transition from an extended period of authoritarian rule to fledgling democratic government. By the middle of the 1990s, this wave had crested. Although founding elections continued to be conducted in African countries that were latecomers to the political-reform bandwagon, they took place less frequently than earlier in the decade. Meanwhile, in countries that had experienced early regime change, expiring electoral cycles gave rise to a groundswell of "second" elections. Less glamorous than the landmark contests that gave birth to democracy, these events nevertheless held out the possibility that democratic routines might be deepened.
In Africa countries such as Guinea , Nigeria, Liberia political manipulation in election is almost significant as the election . I.e for every election the have been allegation of election malpractice.
In Guinea the Media Foundation for West Africa claims that Journalists Face Reprisals After Guinea Elections. Several independent journalists have been harassed and intimidated for reports on the controversial election that authorities didn't appreciate. The stories denounced what were described as widespread election malpractices. The publications were also accompanied by picture illustrations of underage children stuffing ballot boxes and women who had voted more than once. Reporters from Le Diplomate and Le Populaire were apparently targeted. In the 21 Dec. election, head of state Gen. Lansana Conté was overwhelmingly re-elected, according to official figures, in the face of the boycott of all major opposition figures. Interestingly, one of the article that aroused governmental fury alleged that the Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, had offered his Guinean counterpart, President Lansana Conte, exile in Dakar. Police who interrogated [the author of the piece] accused him of jeopardizing the internal security of the state. Guinea is the only country in West Africa without any private radio or television stations.
In Nigeria the response of Bush administration as well as media reports makes clear that Olusegun Obasanjo and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will be accepted as the legitimate victor in the recent Nigerian elections, despite widespread vote-rigging.
When it suits them the United States and other western powers have raised their concerns about the legitimacy of an election in a developing country. In Nigeria, however, despite widespread reports of ballot box stuffing, under-age voting and 100 percent returns from some areas for the incumbent president, barely a murmur can be heard.
In a short statement, the US government states, “Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on April 22 declared President Olusegun Obasanjo the victor in last Saturday’s presidential election” and “congratulates the overwhelming majority of the Nigerian people for what was a peaceful exercise of their right to vote in many parts of the country”. It merely calls for all complaints to be taken to “competent tribunals” to be considered “in a timely, impartial and transparent manner.”
The New York Times initially labelled the elections as “botched”, described some of the “irregularities” and said that Nigeria could not “afford to ignore charges of regional disenfranchisement.” It has since dutifully toned down its criticisms, with an article on April 27 entitled “Nigeria Holds a ‘Credible’ Election. Is That Enough?” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an editorial headlined “Impressive but imperfect/Despite fraud allegations, Nigerian election is progress” while the Christian Science Monitor commented that “given Nigeria’s long history of military rule and rampant corruption, these elections were a relative success for civilian control of the country and for attempts to prevent voting fraud.”
The Election process in Africa has been undermined by the continuous misuse of the political power of parties leaders, this has to stop for the democracy institution to grow and compare with Western or more established Democratic systems.
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