"Africa is increasingly home to partly free states; regimes that hold regular elections but constrain oppoition, civil society and the media"- Freedom House. Photo: Google.
African elections are now different from other regions. These trends of 'electoral authoritarianism' is worrying concerns for future of democracy in Africa. Voters no longer go to polls to choose their favoured candidates, but instead to 'confirm who they think already has power'. Incumbents are relentless harrasing credible candidates to weaken their chances to participate in elections. Incumbents fixation on disqualifying opposition candidates by using bureaucratic, procedural and legal mechanisms to erase competition is a very bad omen for democracy in Africa. "Opposition figures are jailed, disqualified on technicalities, or barred from registering in the first place. The result is an election that looks proceedurally sound but is substantially hollow..., when competition has already been hollowed out and institutional trust eroded, there are few democratic shock absorbers left to contain crisis"-The Idea Letters.
What motivates voters to turn out on election day if this ugly trend continues? This is what we need to find out as Nigeria prepares for presidential and general elections in January 2027.
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