Elections in West Africa

Hi Everybody, Carl here. It has been a bit since my last post, so here goes.

Senegal looks to conduct Presidential elections in February. This process serves as a shining example to other African nations as to how the process should work, mostly.

Recently, there have been several examples of poor election process such as in Cote Ivoire last summer and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in November. Cote Ivoire wasnt necesarily bad election process, it was more about a bad president who refused to accept the clear mandate of the elections and refused to leave office backing this with military power. Getting the picture? France (yea France) finaly went in, captured the guy and he is currently on trial in The Haugue for war crimes. Not a good example of democratic election process but ultimately a process that worked, somewhat.

The DRC, well now there is another kettle of fish. This is a huge country with untold natural resources, probably lots of oil that held an election a few weeks back. It is told that NGOs spent upwards of 700 million USD just to ensure the validity of the elections! Ok, lets start off with a 32 page ballot! Smelling like election fraud yet? They conducted the election and of course all of the 161 candidates are claiming victory! You have got to love it. The Catholic Church claims to have information on voting irregularities and the true winner but they refuse to release this information as it may start a civil war. A Civil war that has factions that support the major contenders and a military which will splinter to support multiple candidates. Holy Moley.

All of this makes the Senegalese elections seem tame in comparison. We have a sitting President who came into office and initiated term limits to 2 elections. He did this right after his first election so he contends that he has only been elected once since term limits were instituted so he is of the opinion that he can run again. The people of Senegal have said no. The President recently proclaimed his formal candidacy for his third election. Senegal law requires 50% of the popular vote to win an election. The President tried to write legislation tht would allow a win with only 25% support from a popular vote. Well, the people went nuts, rioted and he backed off.

Today there is a great deal of anxiety about the time between now and the next election. Parties proclaimed their candidates on 23 December. Riots because the President threw his hat in the ring as expected. The end of January is when the legislative council will rule on the legitamacy of the Presidents bid and campaigning may begin for all. Probably more rioting. Then the elections at the end of February will not produce a 50% popular vote for any one candidate and well you guessed it, probably more riots. A run off election will be forced in March if there is less than a 50% popular vote.

Laurie , Matt and I were driving home one afternoon when traffic came to a standstill. Matt started complaining that his eyes were burning and yes, there was rioting at a local university with CS gas thrown in healthy doses. A few days later, an opposition candidate for President was approached by a "band of thugs" and he responded with guns killing one (evidently on you tube), he is currently on trial for murder. Politics Africa style.....

Who knows what the future will bring? The good news is that Senegal will direct these elections for better or worse. The populace is generally peaceful and interested in change for the better of all. They want a better and more prosperous country and you can not blame them.

Anxious in the short term and hopeful for the long term.

All the best. Carl