[panafrican]

Hi

I think this is a timely topic. The recent Nigeria election process is something many African countries could learn something from, but as recent & current events show, some people are probably to dense in their heads to learn anything.

The other day Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, the 71 year old president of Sudan has just “won” an election with 94% of the electorate voting for him. He first came to power in 1989 after a military coup & has been there ever since.

Currently, a couple of Burundians have already lost their lives, probably gunned down by police in ongoing demonstrations triggered by the re-election of Nkurunziza by the ruling party to stand in the forthcoming elections. That would not be unusual, if Nkurunziza was not just completing his 10th year (second term) in power, with the constitution allowing only 2 terms! As is common around Africa, one can go around this by changing the constitution, if necessary to remain in power. Collateral damage, like some deaths here & there do not matter.

It is not clear which turn this is going to take, either going the Burkina Faso way, where the president gave in to the public outcry. The other way of course is the man forcibly staying.

Then we have the case of Togo with the Gnassingbes, where one family has practically ruled the country for almost 50 years. The father, who died after ruling for 38 years was replaced by the son, Faure Gnassingbe in 2005. In 2010, after a violent and what was considered a flawed election, he was re-elected. The opposition, outnumbered by the ruling party failed in a bid to re-introduce term limits, which had been removed from the constitution in 2002.

Not quite sure where we are heading with this.

My 2 cents.

[Author]

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