Africa is a continent of 53 countries of which five belong to Northern Africa namely, Egypt,

Libya, Tunisia, morocco and Algeria. These are normally excluded from analyses of Africa
because of their distinctly different socio cultural characteristics. The remaining 48 states in sub
Saharan Africa constitute the geographical setting for the empirical analysis, the empirical reality
of elections differs between these countries in many respects.

African countries have in the past recent years been faced with quite a number of challenges
ranging from civil wars, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, drought, epidemical diseases including
Ebola, which claimed quite a number of lives especially in west and central African countries.
However the most important challenge has been the issue of adopted elections, the most recently
reported cases of disputed elections coming from Gambia, DRC, Burundi, and Zambia. This has
not only let to the distagrated of political and saved relations in those countries but also posed as
a great threat to democracy.

Having to consider all these issues at hand, this essay will discuss the impact that elections have
had on the process of establishing a viable democracy in Africa. It will firstly define the
important terms in the question and go on to discuss the question in the main body bringing out
the main points as to how elections are a great impact on democracy looking at both its merits
and demerits, and lastly a conclusion will be made as to what has been discussed in the main
body.

An election is a formal procedure where by a person is elected ,especially to a political office or

rather the action of electing or the fact of being elected, another critical word is viable, which
means capable of working successfully or possible to do easily or conveniently. To establish is to
set up a firm or permanent basis, in other words to achieve permanent acceptance or recognition
and last but not least democracy, is to set up a firm or permanent acceptance or recognition.

Elections are a complex processes beyond their potential to help countries shift from autocratic
regimes to more democratic ones, emphasis should be placed on transformations not transitions.
The importance of political processes to ensure inclusiveness and the credibility of the electoral
process to assist political parties to overcome their disagreements and provide security to the
contending parties (UNITED NATIONS, 2011).However the holding of elections alone does not
speak to the quality of democracy in a country and as been demonstrated time and again, it can
spark large scale violence. Rather elections should be part of a broader political frame work that
promotes good governance good governance, the rule of law and equal and equal participation in
politics. The electoral way is one of the many options of choosing leadership and disposing old
government in a political system, as a core institution of representative democracy, elections are
supposedly the only means to decide who holds legislative and executive power respectively.

Democracy includes participatory and contested elections perceived as the legitimate procedure
for the translation of rule by the people into workable executive and legislative power. Elections
alone are not sufficient to make democracy, yet no other institution precedes participatory,
competitive and legitimate elections in instrumental importance for self-government. Elections
also facilitate the institution and deepening of de facto civil liberties in society operating as a
causal variable in democratization. Democracy in Africa tends to follow a sequence of at least
three electoral cycles, importantly, the empirical evidence testifies that after third elections
regime breakdowns do not occur except in very rare instances (Lindberg, 2011).The literature of
democratization in Africa is still relatively thin compared to that of southern Europe and Latin
America, yet, as has been pointed out elsewhere. Africa had its first wave of democracy in the
late 1950s, as countries engaged in a struggle for national independence.

Africa has made a tremendous progress during the past couple of decades, both normatively and
in practice in developing principles of democracy and good governance, however much work
remains to be done (Weisman, 2005). Since a democratic state is a rule for the people, by the
people and with the people, this practically means that the people need to have a say in the way
they are been governed and are free to express their views with any sort of interference by its
government, however among the reasons that pose as a threat through elections include
unconstitutional changes of the government ,with good reason described as one of the essential
causes of insecurity instability and violent conflicts in Africa. The African commission on
human and people’s rights stated that unconstitutional changes of government violate the
individual rights of people to s free expression, assembly and participation in their government
(Dawda, 2000).

There can be no uncertainty as to the serious threat that unconstitutional changes of government
pose to democracy in Africa. From the 1950s to the 1970s, decolonization swept across Africa,
while freedom was greeted with eutrophic in many places, it could not mask the deep political
instability that often accompanied independence, coups and aborted coups littered the political
landscape on the continent (Freedom house, 2009. Elections have facilitated the emergence of
democratic governments in Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and South Africa,
following autocratic regimes and protracted civil wars, more stable societies have emerged in
Guinea, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leon. In some cases, however elections have been manipulated
to ensure dynastic successions on the continents (Bekue, 2007).

However, electoral violence can erode a people’s faith in democratic processes, in addition
countries with a history of electoral violence often experience a recurrence of such violence as
been witnessed in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. None the less, while each context is unique,
certain patterns have been identified that put countries at risk of electoral violence, elections are
not inherently a source of violence they can exacerbate political, ethnical, regional and religious
tensions if they are not conducted within an appropriate institutional framework (International
Peace Institute IPI, elections in Africa, 2011).

Besides what has been discussed, the role of election observers in promoting democracy also
plays a huge role, according to SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections.
Election observer missions should be developed at least two weeks before the voting day, this is
in order to establish whether the environment is conducive to the holding of free and fair
elections (Linde, 2011) This in one way or another can help in establishing a viable democracy
in Africa, considering the fact that, the elections are monitored hence no room for election
rigging of any kind.

In addition, a critical look at a charter on democracy, elections and governance in Africa,

provides no mention of the way forward, should an election observation mission find that the
environment is repressive and not conducive to the holding of free and fair elections. The charter
on provides an obligation on African government to ensure free and fair elections, giving more
room to a democratic state. The African union AU, goes on in the charter stating the already
existing fact that free and fair elections to institutionalize legitimate authority of representative
government. It goes on to explain that state parties reaffirm their commitment to regularly
holding transparent, free and fair elections in accordance with the unions declaration in the
principles governing democratic elections in Africa. (Saungweme, 2007).

The more prevalent and pressing problem in democratizing countries is not how to perfect
democracy but how to establish something that at least comes close to be a minimal democracy.
A necessary element in an assessment if of democratic quality is that electoral cycles are not
aborted, hence this negative indicator of legitimacy, coups or civil wars following elections as
Sierra Leon and ROC, is proof that cycle of holding regular elections has broken down and key
elite groups do not consider the democratic process of rule legitimacy hence electoral regime
survival. While more and more elections in a country is not always better, as the general rule the
general political development as arguably served by more elections on a continent where there
have for long been too few, rather than too many. However, too many elections within one and
the same country can be a sign of instability and fragility in nascent electoral regimes.
Politicking leading to unstable parliamentary coalitions, floor crossing, legislative, executive
deadlocks and presidential or parliamentary coalitions.

Finally the role of establishing a viable democracy in Africa has been the subject of debate in
recent years. A growing number of scholars have argued against the importance of elections and
criticized the importance of elections and criticized the current international emphasis, however
it has been proven that lections in fact have a causal impact on improving the quality of
democracy in Africa. The process of holding an uninterrupted series of De Jure, this means right,
in accordance with the law legally, participatory, competitive and legitimate elections contributes
not only to increasing democracy in Africa but also has positive effects on the spread and
deepening of De Facto, this simply means in practice, in actual use or existence, regardless of
official or legal status and its often opposed to de jure, civil liberties in society, Sandbrook,
(2014).

In conclusion, having discussed the merits and demerits of elections in establishing a viable
democracy in Africa, it is safe to say that elections play a very vital role in the process and hence
a critical look its shortcomings can make it a more reliable process. Democracy and Elections
work hand in hand so if the first has to be achieved, the latter has to a free and fair process in
order for it to lead to the establishment of a viable democracy in most African countries.
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Dawda S, (2000), Communications. New York: Harper Torch books (originally published in
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Dennis Weisman L, (2005), New African. New York: Dover publications.

Dorina B, (2007), Trends in electoral violence. New York: Basic Books.

International Peace Institute IPI, (2011), Elections in Africa: Special issue Africa.

Stephan Lindberg, L, (2010), The power of Elections. Harvard University: University press.

Saungweme, S, (2007), A charter on Democracy. New Haven: Yale University press.

Van De, L, (2011), Emerging electoral trends in light of recent African elections. Cambridge
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Sandbrook, R, (2014), Quantitative measures of democracy in Africa.