Tyson Roberts

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Police officers walk out of the premises of the Autonomous National Electoral Commission as vote-counting begins in Cotonou, Benin, on April 12. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)

Benin’s April 11 elections have many analysts increasingly concerned that the country is following a recent pattern of democratic decline in Africa. In 1991, Benin was the first former dictatorship to hold multiparty elections in Africa’s post-Cold War wave of democratization. According to one measure of democracy — the “two-turnover test” — Benin consolidated its democracy in 1996, when a second incumbent president lost reelection.

Political scientists define democracy as a system with contested elections — which means the opposition has some chance of winning. That wasn’t the case in Benin, where President Patrice Talon took steps to ensure his victory before a single vote was cast last month.…  Seguir leyendo »

Policemen surround the residence of Henri Konan Bédié, former Ivorian head of state and current president of the National Transitional Council in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, on Nov. 3. (Legnan Koula/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

President Alassane Ouattara won a third term in Côte d’Ivoire’s Oct. 31 election, with 94 percent of the vote. Was this a free and fair election? Some outside analysts suggest that it was not, raising memories of the country’s authoritarian past.

Opposition candidates Henri Konan Bédié and Pascal Affi N’Guessan had called on supporters to boycott the vote, complaining Ouatarra’s candidacy violated the presidential two-term limit. After the vote, police fired tear gas in front of Bédié’s home and arrested his top aides and N’Guessan for calling for new elections and announcing the creation of a parallel government.

The challenges of the Ivoirian 2020 elections have their roots in conflicts that began 30 years ago, when Ouattara and Bédié were rivals to succeed Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country’s first president.…  Seguir leyendo »

A polling official cuts the seal of a ballot box during the elections for a new parliament in Cotonou, Benin, on April 28. (Yanick Folly/AFP/Getty Images)

In the weeks before Benin’s April 28 election, police used tear gas to disperse demonstrations led by former presidents Nicephore Soglo and Thomas Yayi Boni, who called for a boycott of the opposition-less election.

The government blocked social media and messaging apps on the Internet. International and domestic observers canceled poll monitoring plans in anticipation of violence — there were two reported deaths and 206 incidents during the election. Yayi Boni called for the election results to be annulled; soldiers in tanks circled his home and fired on hundreds of protesters.

Such events would be unsurprising in some African countries, including neighboring Togo.…  Seguir leyendo »