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Feb 15, 2024 | 
democracyinafrica.org | Nic Cheeseman |Daniel Paget |Nkasi Wodu
For anyone who follows Zimbabwe, the past few weeks have been a blur. The country and its people are yet again reeling from a flawed and violent election, an economy in perpetual tailspin, and punishing corruption that even prevented the national football team from taking the pitch in Africa’s Cup of Nations. Perhaps the biggest story on people’s’ minds, however, has been the rapid implosion of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).
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Feb 8, 2024 | 
znetwork.org | Daniel Paget |Haitian Creole |Scottish Gaelic
Anti-authoritarian struggles on the continent aren’t just fighting for democracy, but they are also reimagining it. At the turn of the millennium,…
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Feb 8, 2024 | 
africasacountry.com | Daniel Paget |Michela Wrong |Michaela Collord |Alex Park
Let me start in Tanzania. As Chadema states in its constitution, it sees Tanzania’s history as one of domination. “The ‘people’ of Tanzania,” it states, “have never had a voice, power and authority over” themselves. Instead, “from the colonial era to date,” those things have been vested in “the few people,” in terms that are remarkably reminiscent of radical republican ideas of oligarchic state capture. This history of domination contains a searing critique of Tanzania today.
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Jan 23, 2024 | 
democracyinafrica.org | Nic Cheeseman |Kristof Titeca |Daniel Paget |Nkasi Wodu
From the torture, disappearance, and killing of opponents to the strict control and even gagging of media, the news is rife with the unsavory practices of authoritarian governments. Not content with violently targeting opponents at home, there has been a wave of incidents showing the increasingly long arm of non-democratic regimes, as the poisoning of Sergei Skripal or the murder of Jamal Khashoggi illustrate.
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Nov 15, 2023 | 
democracyinafrica.org | Westen K Shilaho |Martin Welz |Daniel Paget |Nkasi Wodu
It’s more than a year since President William Ruto was as Kenya’s fifth president. He assumed power at a time when Kenya was beset by rising food and fuel prices, high unemployment and a worrying debt burden. During the election campaign, Ruto promised to fix an economy afflicted by corruption and ineptitude. He promised to entrench good governance and place the poor at the centre of economic policy. He pledged to address ethnicised politics and to uphold constitutionalism and the rule of law.
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Aug 30, 2023 | 
democracyinafrica.org | itarian Regimes |Sammy Awami |Daniel Paget |Yvan Guichaoua
The saga surrounding the controversial Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) betweenTanzania and the Emirate of Dubai has truly tested President Samia Suluhu Hassan’stolerance of her critics and, importantly, her resolve to protect and expand civic space. The agreement forms the foundation for discussions to have the Emirati state-ownedcontainer terminal giant DP World manage seven berths of Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port. Sadly, the outcome of this test has been disappointing.
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Aug 29, 2023 | 
democracyinafrica.org | Nkasi Wodu |Daniel Paget |Yvan Guichaoua |Nina Wilén
Zimbabwe and Gabon, two countries with a history of protracted political dominance by one ruling party, held elections this week. These elections come against a recent military coup in Niger in July 2023 and a string of other military coups and attempted coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Sierra Leone between 2020 to 2023.
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Aug 27, 2023 | 
democracyinafrica.org | Daniel Paget |Yvan Guichaoua |Nina Wilén |Jeffrey Haynes
The end of the 2023 Zimbabwe election campaign marks another in which partisans have traded words, day in, day out, about how many people attended their rallies. One party’s advocates would assert that their rallies were packed. It’s opponents would claim it was empty. Disputes like this play-out in campaign after campaign. But not, new research argues, only for the reasons we think. Past analyses focus on popularity.
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Aug 24, 2023 | 
democracyinafrica.org | itarian Regimes |Yvan Guichaoua |Nina Wilén |Daniel Paget
The coup led by General Tiani which overthrew President Bazoum in Niger on July 26 is the latest in a series of coups taking place in the Sahel. Since 2020, six coups have taken place in the Sahel region – with Niger, it makes it seven. Reactions from regional and international actors have been unparalleled, both stronger and more divided and confused than in previous instances. This coup carries with it greater international concerns and possibly greater dangers than previous ones.
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Aug 23, 2023 | 
democracyinafrica.org | Musa Kika |Daniel Paget |Gabrielle Lynch |Borso Tall
Polling day is finally here. It’s a shambolic election; it’s a charade. It’s a disputed election. Showing lack of faith in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the entire electoral process, everything has been litigated: delimitation report, voters’ roll, dates of election, nomination, nomination fees, statutory instruments gazetted for this election, accreditation of observers, printing of ballot papers – anything and everything. No doubt, the outcome will be litigated too.
