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Turning Elections into a Development Asset in Africa

Author: Admore Kambudzi
Date: 2008
Size: 12 pages (229 KB)

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Summary

How can elections be turned into a development asset in Africa? This study by the Institute of Security Studies argues that in order for elections to become a real asset, African countries need to implement effective decentralisation, including the empowerment of local communities within a rationalised national plan. If they can do this they will also prevent conflicts and achieve increased national self-confidence and self-empowerment in relation to the global politico-economic and strategic environment.

Elections are emerging as a new source of tension, disruption and violence. However, Africa has huge natural resources compared with other continents and an expanding youthful population. Only appropriate statesmanship in political and economic terms is needed to bring about a marriage between these two resource bases to give a real chance of development.

Election-related conflict is a recent phenomenon on the continent and its underlying causes have still not been fully researched. However, recent election crises indicate that electoral violence is:

• A product of protracted political mismanagement, which then induces economic mismanagement.
• Reduced if a broad power sharing arrangement is developed.
• Disruptive of security and defence institutions, which means that the use of force complicates the situation further.
• Not easily averted by creating stringent election regulations.

Meaningful developmental decentralisation must be chosen over cosmetic decentralisation. The latter merely extends the control of a governing party and acts as a conduit for top-down decisions. Developmental decentralisation, however, could be an effective tool for managing ethnic diversity. A number of conditions are needed to facilitate it:

• Local communities must be able to identify their needs, assess funding requirements and meet part of the costs and must be empowered to develop and run their own cultural, economic and political affairs.
• Practically relevant technical education should be available within local communities.
• The central political and economic authorities must channel substantive resources to local communities on a timely basis.

Election crises need to be viewed in a broader perspective of political management. The African Union (AU), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and individual countries each have a part to play in this enterprise. So does the citizenry in each country. Recommendations include the following:

• The AU should promote a massive presence of election monitoring teams, arriving early and spreading evenly across constituencies, with the capacity to pay attention to unsettling circumstances.
• Each country must ensure that the institutions in charge of the conduct of elections are both representative and effectively empowered.
• Political parties should insist on top leadership term limits, avoid confusing the assets of the state with those of the party and ensure manipulation-proof mechanisms for conducting intra-party elections.
• Opposition parties should offer sound political ideas, have vision for the future, as well as for planned action in competing for power
• Civil society organisations should make suggestions for constitutional reviews and reform, provide relevant early warning information regarding elections and carry out impact assessments relating to elections.

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Source: Kambudzi, A., 2008, 'Turning Elections into a Development Asset in Africa', Institute for Security Studies, South Africa