In the post 1990s era of multiparty democracy in Africa, concerted attempts towards power retention by incumbents through ‘Third-termism’ has presented the most daunting challenge. Employing the development theory of testing case studies, this article examines progress made on the continent since the adoption of competitive multiparty democracy since the 1990s. Citing democratic stagnation in Togo, Gabon, Cameroon and other related states, the research reveals that sitting regimes have mastered the art of undertaking constitutionalelectoral processes without changing the outcome. This is a phenomenon that appears to have escaped the attention of researchers and analysts. Theconclusion drawn is that, the quest for ‘Third-terms extending periods in power by long-serving incumbents and some surviving siblings has become thesyndrome that reflects the embedded deep states which are immune to electoral challenge for the foreseeable future.

The article analyses the efforts of the European Union in the 2000s to promote the democracy in Africa by ensuring that elections in the countries of the continent were transparent, free and fair. Therefore, the EU sends its election observation missions to monitor African elections and supports a range of various supplementary initiatives. The article looks at the aims and methods used by the EU observer missions, on the examples of various country cases (Kenya, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Nigeria), and discusses the consequences which such missions might have both for the EU, the government and society of a given African country.

Almost half of African conflicts are “post-electoral”, aroused by disputed claims over legitimacy of the elections, including leaders staying in power past a designated two-term limit. Substantial proportions of the population in Africa are skeptical about the quality of their elections. They talk about vote manipulation, lack of transparency of election monitoring bodies and corruption. Poor electoralprocess produces public mistrust, protest, and violence. The most serious problem is interference of external forces into election process. The US brings which is essential to growth and stability, while the West model places a premium on human rights and democracy. Most Africans believe that food, shelter and health are more important than the right to vote. So they make a choice for the Beijing Model instead of the Washington Consensus. But Zambiahas become one of the first African countries where China’s role turned into potent political issue. Michael Sata anti-Chinese sentiment helped him to defeat President Rupiah Banda on the elections of 2011. Оn the eve of Zambia’s presidential elections one of the most common tropes about the vote was to describe it as a referendum on China. 

The Arab Spring emphasized the extraordinary importance of the youth policy for ensuring the national security in the countries of North Africa. President аl-Sisi placed the youth perspective in the center of his domestic policy. The article’s aim is to analyze the main tools of the youth policy of Abdel Fattah аl-Sisi, including policy in the field of party-building, tightened control over the activity of the non-governmental organizations, organization of the regular youth conferences, increasing efforts towards the solution of the main economicproblems of the Egyptian youth – namely, a housing problem and the problem of the youth unemployment. The certain success achieved by the leadershipof Egypt in these areas generally explains the results of the presidential elections in Egypt in 2018 and of the constitutional referendum of 2019 which are considered in this article. They testify that the opponents of the current government are mainly the residents of large cities, whose protest is not politically organized yet.

The article focuses on the analysis of the current political situation in Côte d’Ivoire in the face of the presidential election campaign with the election due to take place in October 2020. The country might be led to another socio-political crisis. The events might be influenced by ethnic and religious factors and also the problem of president Ouattara’s third term of office. Another issue that should not be overlooked is the destabilizing role that might be played in the electoral process by the Ivorian army.

After the beginning of the African continent’s democratization process, the people had confidence in elections which were supposed to ensure a regular renewal of the political regimes. However, some regimes in place have been developping strategies to stay in power. For example in Togo, unfulfilled commitments or constitutional amendments to represent in elections are the maneuvers of the “Gnassingbe” regime, which is still in power for more than half a century, despite so-called transparent elections held periodically. As a result,the opposition political parties and the population often resorted to the street demonstrations. These demonstrations date back to the early days of multipartypolitics in Togo and are often at the root of several democratic advances, albeit negligible, obtained from the political power in place. This contribution aims to analyze the post-election contestations in Togo and their impact on the country’s democratization process.

This text aims to highlight the differences and continuities of the electoral exercise under the colonialist dictatorship and, after independence, under the one-party regime in São Tomé and Príncipe. The non-adoption of democracy at independence in 1975 was not due to inexperience with democratic procedures caused by a dictatorial character of colonialism. By contrast, the failure to hold free and competitive elections was a reserved choice of the new leaders whose aim was to achieve and preserve power, if necessary against the will of the people whose interests they claimed to be defenders. Under dictatorships, the formalities of the elections – or, strictly speaking, their simulacrum – were meant to aid the fiction of the legitimation of dictatorial colonial power and the single post-independence party. Both regimes bet on forcibly obtaining the consent or consent of the governed.

This article presents the method applied within the research project “Re-examining elections after African experiences”: this project allowed to gather and analyze through the EleQta digital platform more than 5,000 pieces of information about elections held in 12 countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa between 2015 and 2019. It will make use of the results of the enquiries conducted on the 2016 presidential elections in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) to describe the approach adopted and the fundamental assumptions of the project. Furthermore, it will defend the idea that the analysis of African electoral processes leads to redefinebasic notions and to develop conceptual tools which can be applied to electoral processes in the West.

The article investigates the efficiency of the centripetal requirement of the territorial distribution of votes in the presidential elections in Kenya. This is power-sharing response to ethnic division in the country and its electoral clashes, tribalism andpolarization of the political scene. By analyzing the presidential election results since 1992, I argue that the introduced judicial solutions (including Constitutional reform in 2010), fail to alter ethnical voting pattern and elect pan-ethnic president.