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Title: REVIEW 2000-AFRICA: The Uphill Struggle For Democracy

By Lewis Machipisa

HARARE, Dec 20 (IPS) - Internal and foreign pressure in the late
1980s spurred many an African autocratic system into multiparty
pluralism.

However, nascent opposition movements have found it another
major struggle, altogether, to contest on a level playing field.

Biased electoral systems, grey areas between state and party,
as well as internal squabbles and disunity are among the multiple
disadvantages that have dampened the opposition's effectiveness.

The poor showing by Tanzania's scattered opposition in
elections in October, is just the latest example of the mountains
of challengers many African nations have to overcome to fight the
hegemony where politics, albeit multipartism, is dominated by a
single group.

Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party won 71.7
percent of the votes cast. But the story could have been different
in the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar where the CCM party only
won because of massive electoral fraud.

The Zanzibar situation brought into sharp focus the need to
come up with norms and standards to deliver honest elections in
the African region where the management of elections is far from
perfect.

Thousands of people failed to cast their votes in the Oct 29
presidential, parliamentary and local government elections in
Zanzibar because ballot papers either failed to come on time or in
some cases never showed up.

Zanzibar is only the latest case of controversy over polling
results -- most other countries, including Zimbabwe, Mozambique
and Zambia, have faced criticism over alleged manipulated voting
figures in the past.

In much of Africa, rigging of the elections appears to be the
sole prerogative of ruling parties, who seem to have turned it
into an art form. And if elections are not rigged, incompetence by
electoral commissions, tasked with running the elections,
generally leave a sour taste.

Ivory Coast, longtime haven of stability in the west African
region, was torn, in recent months, by ethnic and political
violence following elections there recently.

For years, considered to be the most stable, prosperous country
in West Africa, residents of the Ivory Coast were stunned last
December when soldiers mounted the first coup in the country's
history and installed General Robert Guei.

But Gen. Guei was ousted in a popular uprising in October after
he tried to steal victory in the presidential elections won by
Laurent Gbagbo.

However, prospects of peace in the west African nation hang in
the balance following last month's elections. Cote d'Ivoire's
minister of defence and Civil Protection, Moise Lida Kouassi, has
disclosed that the deposed Gen. Guei, plans to topple the new
government of President Gbagbo.

According to Kouassi, Gen. Guei, who seized power on 24
December 1999, was reportedly setting up an army essentially
composed of members of his personal guard and Liberian refugees.

Ruling parties have been used to staying in power. Results on
much of Africa's elections confirm the fact that the countries
remain firmly in the grip of a single party, despite multiparty
polls, and a host of opposition groups.

If some opposition movements were able to benefit from
democratic openings and win polls in Zambia (1991), Congo (1992)
Malawi and South Africa (1994), Mauritius, Senegal and Cote
d'Ivoire (2000), this proved more difficult in countries like
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Few ruling parties have found it easy to stay in power without
having to resort to electoral fraud or unfair advantages over the
opposition.

Out of a parliament of 150 members, Zimbabwe's ruling party
only needs to win 46 seats to retain control of the house in any
election.

President Robert Mugabe, in power since the country attained
independence in 1980, appoints 20 members to parliamant in a
system heavily weighted in favour of the ruling party.

The ruling ZANU-PF party also benefits indirectly from the
support of 10 chiefs sent into parliament by a college of
traditional leaders, loyal to the government.

In its general elections held in June, Morgan Tsvangirai's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won an
unprecedented 57 of 120 parliamentary seats up for election.

However, political observers say had it not been because of
violence and intimidation before and during the elections, the
opposition would have won the vote. At least 32 people, mostly MDC
supporters, died in politically motivated clashes in the run-up to
elections.

Violence is still continuing and looks set to intensify as 2002
draws near. Zimbabwe's presidential elections will be held
sometime in 2002 and, from all appearances, these will be the most
fiercely fought since independence.

But if plans to come up with norms and standards for elections
in the southern African region are successful, the bumpy road in
conducting elections and institutionalising a democratic culture
will be smooth.

According to the Southern African Development Community
Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), experience gained by their members
in observing elections in Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius, Zimbabwe
and Tanzania is quite revealing and hence the need to come up with
good practices which will become the benchmark for good regional
and international standing in the development of a democratic
culture.

Shortcomings in the electoral process based on observing
elections in the southern African region include adequately funded
ruling parties and poorly funded opposition parties, opposition
parties being denied adequate access to the state-owned media,
electoral commission accused of lacking independence and not being
impartial by favouring ruling parties and impartial law enforcing
agents controlled by and favouring ruling parties.

Ethnicity is also a potent force employed by would-be monoliths
to retain their grip on power.

Nowhere has democracy and its instruments been more trampled on
than in Nigeria. Elections there in mid-1993 were overturned and a
year later, the man believed to have won them was imprisoned after
he declared himself president.

A new government is now in power led by Olusegun Obasanjo. But
he also had to swap his military garb with civilian attire.
However, commentators state that the transformation is only
superficial and often joke, 'once in the army, always in the
army'.

In Ghana, all talk has been about outgoing president Jerry
Rawlings even though he was not a candidate in these elections.

Part of the reason is that Rawlings has formed a special 64th
Battalion of the Ghana army that has been trained in special
skills associated with subversion. The battalion is regarded as
the best-armed in the military, and is generally believed to be a
law unto itself.

When Rawlings, an air force flight lieutenant, first seized
power in 1979, he oversaw the execution of three former heads of
state and dozens of senior officials for corruption. He then
quickly passed over power to a civilian government. But in 1981,
he staged another coup.

Many in Ghana have said they believe Rawlings will continue to
play an important role in national life, especially if his vice
President, John Atta Mills, chosen by Rawlings to succeed him,
wins.

Rawlings, 53, is a former fighter pilot who first seized power
in 1979 in a bloody military coup and has dominated national life
since. Rawlings won the elections in 1992 and 1996 but, under a
constitution that he helped draft, was barred from running for a
third term.

If Rawlings, who has master minded coups in the past, stays
completely out of politics, it would make Ghana one of the few
bright lights in a region wrecked by turmoil.

In the west African region, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea
are already engaged in bloody cross-border fighting, and Guinea-
Bissau was recently rocked by a military uprising.

While there are many bad apples around, a few countries have
proved that the wishes of the people can be respected and there is
no need to shed blood.

In elections held in September in Mauritius, the opposition
alliance of Anerood Jugnauth's Militant Socialist Movement (MSM)
and Paul Berenger's Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) won 54 out
of mainland Mauritius's 60 member parliament.

This was the first time since 1995 that a sitting head of
government was removed from office in the 14-member Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC) region under which Mauritius
is a member.

To its credit, the tiny Indian ocean volcanic island uses a
"Block Vote" where voters have as many votes as there are seats to
be filled and the highest polling candidates fill the positions
regardless of the percentage of the votes they achieve. Mauritius
has a three-member constituency.

This type of voting is peculiar to Mauritius. Its proponents
argue the main advantage (of the block vote) is that is reinforces
the party allegiances of electors and reduces the communal
feelings of the electorate by making it less easy for the
supporter of a particular party to give support only to the
candidate or candidates of their party.(END/IPS/lm/sm/00)


Origin: HREAIPS/REVIEW 2000-AFRICA/
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       [c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
                     All rights reserved

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