EXPLAINING ELECTION AS A CURSE TO DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA: REFLECTIONS FROM SOME SELECTED AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

There is no gainsaying that lawful, peaceful and credible elections are the invaluable ingredients for democratic deepening and consolidation. It is also seen as an indispensable feature of democratic governance, a source of legitimacy enjoyed by the government and to a considerable degree it also establishes the height of political development of a given polity. And more importantly, election is also conceived as a mechanism of peace building; it serves as a medium of peaceful resolution of societal political differences and preferences while at the same time building citizen’s trust in the capacity of collective decisions and institutions to govern. However, in most African transitory and ailing democracies such as Kenya, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Cote d’Ivoire, elections are now becoming a source of credible threat to democratic sustenance, stability and governance. Elections in these polities are devoid of democratic ingredients; they are rather fraudulent, lawless, destructive and violent in nature. This obviously cannot enthrone stable and sustainable democratic systems. Thus, this paper interrogates the dangers and damage these illegal, unsecured and undemocratic elections pose to the democratization processes and political systems in Africa. To achieve the purpose of the study, the paper mainly drew its data from secondary sources and based in inferences from selected African countries argued that if these affected countries fail to reconfigure and democratize their electoral processes and systems, elections will remain a formidable threat to the democratization process and governance process and state systems of these societies.