Elections in Africa 2011

30 African Countries to Hold Elections in 2011

By Williams Ekanem

At least thirty elections are taking place on the African continent this year.

My Africa Channel Television findings show that of all of them the ones that are generating global are those of Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Investigations show that the elections in Nigeria are of great interest to all and sundry because it constitutes the single most significant event in the country this year and rightly so. There are many reasons why this is the case.  First, there is the recognition that past elections, except that of 1993, have been woeful and did not represent the wishes of the Nigerian people, simply put, the elections were not free and fair. Second, there is the recognition that leadership is a critical issue in Nigeria. Because of the lack of genuine and progressive leadership, all forms of progress a modern country should make are stalled. It is expected that free and fair elections in April would propel the country, the most populous black nation on earth towards a measure of progress.

In addition, the insistence of Robert Mugabe to again stand for reelections after decades in power and growing call for him to step aside makes the forth coming elections in Zimbabwe very interesting to observers. This is largely because Zimbabwe faces renewed political and economic turmoil as President Robert Mugabe is pushing for reelection in polls next year and has threatened to kick out Western firms. The veteran leader, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, was over the weekend endorsed by his Zimbabwe’s African National Union-Patriotic Front ( ZANU-PF) party to contest a likely fierce election battle against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mugabe who at 86 is Africa's oldest leader, and could stay in power until well into his nineties if he wins another presidential term, is expected to face MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the current prime minister and his long-time foe, in a presidential vote, after he said an almost two-year power-sharing arrangement between their parties would end in February.

Nonetheless, analysts say Mugabe's quest for polls and bombastic, hard-faced rhetoric that he could nationalize British and American company’s risks unraveling progress made since 2009 that saw hyperinflation ended and a sense of normality return. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is reported to be quietly but strategically stepping up his outreach to Africa, using this year to increase his engagement with a continent that is personally meaningful to him and important to U.S. interests. The White House says Obama will travel to Africa again and the political calendar means the trip will almost certainly happen this year, before Obama has to spend more time on his re-election bid. No decision has been made on which countries Obama will visit, but deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the stops will reflect positive democratic models.

Expectations in Africa spiked after the election of an American president with a Kenyan father. But midway through his term, Obama's agenda for Africa has taken a backseat to other foreign policy goals, such as winding down the Iraq war, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and resetting relations with Russia. White House officials believe the postelection standoff in Ivory Coast could be the model for Obama's stepped-up engagement in Africa.

Obama aides believe those issues are now on more solid footing, allowing the president to expand his international agenda. He will focus in Africa on good governance and supporting nations with strong democratic institutions.

Obama delivered that message on his only trip to Africa since taking office, an overnight stop in Ghana in 2009, where he was mobbed by cheering crowds. In a blunt speech before the Ghanaian parliament, Obama said democracy is the key to Africa's long-term development.

"That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long," Obama said. "That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans." The White House can send that message right now as it deals with the disputed election in Ivory Coast and an upcoming independence referendum in Sudan, which could split Africa's largest country in two.

Rhodes said the president has invested significant "diplomatic capital" on Sudan, mentioning the referendum in nearly all of his conversations with the presidents of Russia and China, two countries which could wield influence over that of Sudan's government. When Obama stopped in at a White House meeting last month of his national security advisers and United Nations ambassadors, the first topic he broached was Sudan, not Iran or North Korea. And as lawmakers on Capitol Hill neared the December vote on a new nuclear treaty with Russia, Obama called southern Sudan leader Salva Kiir by telephone to offer support for the referendum.

The president tried to call incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo twice last month, from Air Force One as Obama returned from Afghanistan and then a week later.

Neither call reached Gbagbo; administration officials believe the Ivorian leader sought to avoid contact. So Obama wrote Gbagbo a letter, offering him an international role if he stopped clinging to power and stepped down. But Obama also made clear that the longer Gbagbo holds on, and the more complicit he becomes in violence across the country, the more limited his options become, said a senior administration official.