Election Management Bodies in Africa: The pity of it all

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VI, June 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Election Management Bodies in Africa: The pity of it all

Paul Otieno Onyalo
Pan African University-Institute of Governance Humanities and Social Science

Abstract—Since the (re-) introduction of multiparty politics in Africa in the early 1990s, electoral competition for state power has become the norm and most African countries have held more than three successive elections. However, while election is important part of a political process in a democracy and that every political system participate in election as a symbol of the democracy, experience of how Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) have managed elections in Africa has revealed that over the years, their independence have been mortgaged by different internal and external interest thereby being used to subvert the will of the people. This has generated a worrying trend of increasing election-related violent conflict that threatens democracy, peace and stability of the continent. Therefore, this research paper uses content analysis to examine the pitfalls of EMBs in managing elections in Africa with empirical evidence from different African Countries. In order to create an institutional strengthening design for EMBs that has high integrity, the paper concludes by proposing a raft of recommendations such as the need to create a framework for mutually cooperative links based on professionalism and impartiality, enabling EMBs to iron out any disputes during the electoral process, thus strengthening electoral administration and management as an investment for consolidating democracy in Africa.

Keywords— Democratisation; elections; election management bodies; multi-party politics; voting and democratic consolidation

I. INTRODUCTION

E
lections have always been an integral part of African politics since the end of colonialism and have assumed the utmost importance in the course of recent democratization processes (Nohlen et al., 2014). Voting in an election is an important component of democracy as it creates the meaning indifferent for all political system and indicates that the election is an unavoidable process since if there is no election, a political regime will be dictatorship (Chitlaoarporn, 2015). Nevertheless, an election or direct democracy voting such a referendum is often considered one of the most important activities that are ever prepared in a country. It is a very complex administrative task and is usually implemented in a politically charged atmosphere (Wall & IDEA, 2006). Notably, increasing pressure both from within and outside Africa for free and fair elections have made electoral competitions in Africa in the last decade very intense and the results very close.

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