Friday August 3, 2018
By Abdi Latif Dahir
Electoral violence, flagrant malpractices, and more recently, fake news:
these are some of the issues that have come to define African
elections. But for years now, polls across the continent have also added
one more defining feature: a plethora of candidates running for
president.
A
Quartz analysis of African elections in the last three years shows
dozens of candidates, mostly male, running for the top job. The latest
example of this is Zimbabwe’s historic election, where 23 candidates attempted to succeed president Emmerson Mnangagwa who rose to power after Robert Mugabe was ousted last year. The same is also true of Mali, where in late July, 24 contenders vied to challenge president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta for the incumbency.
The profusion of candidates is also true of smaller nations with even
smaller electorates. Take Somalia, which has no universal suffrage, and
where 329 clan-appointed lawmakers
elect the president. And yet, 24 candidates were cleared to run for president. In Liberia, a nation with two million voters, 20 candidates
ran to replace Africa’s first elected female leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In Benin, 32 aspirants
participated in the first round of a poll with some 4.7 million voters. In the Central African Republic, 30 contestants
jockeyed for the presidency in a country with less than six million people. And in Niger, the opposition candidate Hama Amadou
campaigned from behind bars in a crowded field that included ex-prime ministers besides sitting and former presidents.
The profusion of candidates is also true of smaller nations with even
smaller electorates. Take Somalia, which has no universal suffrage, and
where 329 clan-appointed lawmakers
elect the president. And yet, 24 candidates were cleared to run for president. In Liberia, a nation with two million voters, 20 candidates
ran to replace Africa’s first elected female leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In Benin, 32 aspirants
participated in the first round of a poll with some 4.7 million voters. In the Central African Republic, 30 contestants
jockeyed for the presidency in a country with less than six million people. And in Niger, the opposition candidate Hama Amadou
campaigned from behind bars in a crowded field that included ex-prime ministers besides sitting and former presidents.
“Without
equitable development, citizens have little trust in the capacity,
willingness, and possibility of ‘others,’ as opposed to ‘our own,’ to
bring the fruits of nationhood to them.”
Another
reason for the many nominees involves “the weakness of parties,” says
Ken Opalo, assistant professor of African studies at Georgetown
University. With strong presidencies, dysfunctional and weak parties,
and a political culture steeped in clientelism, this gives individuals
an incentive to run on their own. And “in some instances, incumbents
have been known to sponsor candidates to divide the opposition.”
Registering
to contest even with no viable chance or plan of winning can also be a
“strategic decision,” says Jamie Hitchen, director of Africa-focused
research consultancy AREA. In polls where run-offs are likely,
applicants run to strengthen their bargaining positions for
opportunities post-election or securing a seat at the table when leading
protagonists disagree on outcomes.
This was the case in Sierra Leone, Hitchen says, where a majority of
the parties with presidential candidates didn’t even have written
manifestos.
Ultimately,
while the huge number of contestants could be a sign of growing
democratic spaces, Hitchens says this shows how “personalized and not
issue-based” campaigns have become—denying the electorate any meaningful
choice based on substantive policy or ideology.
Powerful presidencies continue to dominate Africa.
To
address this, Orwa and Opalo both argue for the need to tackle the
winner-takes-all mentality that defines the presidency. Establishing
stronger presidential constraints, introducing term limits, greater
post-poll distribution of power, besides building and strengthening
alliances among smaller parties could help remove some of the pressure
from the presidency. Forming devolved economic and political functions
of the central government such as the governor positions in Nigeria and
Kenya might also lessen the impact of this zero-sum game.
And if anything, Orwa says, that could push younger and more qualified candidates to “seek offices lower than the presidency, and which have even higher potential for transformation.”