Polls Africa

03/06/2024

As expected, South Africa's elections have been a rollercoaster. The ruling African National Congress has lost the majority for the first time in 30 years. ANC got 40.2%, down from 57.5% in 2019, Democratic Alliance (DA), got 21.6% while uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the new party supported by former president Jacob Zuma, got an impressive 14.7%. Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) got 9.5%. The road to forming a government will be even more interesting as ANC will be forced to work with one of the opposition parties, each of which has been a strong critic of Cyril Ramaphosa's leadership.

17/01/2024

held elections on Sunday in an election where the incumbent President Azali Assoumani is likely to win. In Africa’s first presidential election of the year, President Assoumani is running for a fourth term, enabled by a controversial 2018 referendum that has enabled him to sidestep presidential term limits. The opposition has claimed irregularities that include ballot stuffing.

In Africa’s first presidential election of the year on January 14, Comoros President Azali Assoumani is running for a fourth term.

01/12/2023

elections are set to be held from 10 to 12 December. ncumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is eligible for re-election since term limits were adjusted from 4 to 6 years by a constitutional amendment in 2019, and he technically will not have served as president for more than the maximum of 12 years at the time of the election. el-Sisi won the 2018 elections with over 97% of the vote is facing minimal contest after several opposition figures were stopped from participating mostly through arrests. el-Sisi will therefore be the winner.

07/11/2023

The Madagascar 2023 presidential election is on November 16 is a reminder that democracy is far more than just holding elections. There is a lot at stake for this crucial and rocky election that was recently postponed due to unrest. Madagascar, an island nation of 30 million citizens, is handicapped with a political system that has concentrated power in the executive branch, overriding the checks and balances that enable a government to be responsive to the priorities of its citizens.

The Madagascar 2023 presidential election is a reminder that democracy is far more than just holding elections. There is a lot at stake.

17/10/2023

Liberia election is most likely headed to a run-off. With provisional results from 92.8% of polling stations counted, Liberia's President George Weah has 43.65% while his rival Joseph Boakai has 43.70%, following the 10 October elections. A run-off will be held if neither candidate gets more than 50%.

11/09/2023

Liberians go to polls on 10the October 2023 to elect the President, House of Representatives and half the Senate. The president is elected to a six-year term in a two-round system. Here is a history of democracy in Liberia which was founded in 1847 by freed American slaves. Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected in 1848 as the first president.
Liberia was a one-party state from 1878 to 1980, under the True Whig Party. Samuel Doe ended the one-party rule through a coup d'état in 1980 during the First Liberian civil war. Doe was overthrown and killed in 1990. The Second Liberian civil war started in 1999 and lasted to 2003.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president in 2005, becoming the 1st female head of state in Africa. Sirleaf was re-elected in 2011. The incumbent George Weah was elected president in 2018.

30/08/2023

The announcement of results came followed this morning by a coup d'état. The military has seized power denouncing lack of transparency in the elections, whose official results gave President Ali Bongo a win. The President remains in Gabon under surveillance while several institutions have been declared dissolved including the electoral commission and the supreme court. Internet has been restored and people have taken to the streets in celebration.

29/08/2023

The outcome of Saturday's general elections are still not yet out as President Ali Bongo, 64, seeks a third seven-year term in office. He faced a coalition of 18 candidates who picked Albert Ondo Ossa as a joint nominee. The government blocked internet access and declared a curfew amid allegations of fraud. France 24, RFI, and TV5 Monde were also blocked, accused of a lack of objectivity. Ondo Ossa has claimed victory and demanded to be declared the winner. The wait for official results continues.

07/08/2023

will hold presidential and legislative elections on August 23. ZANU-PF has held a stranglehold on the presidency since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. The Zimbabwean election represents a generational battle for the future of the country. An octogenarian, Mnangagwa represents the status quo of one-party rule, while 44-year-old Chamisa captures the democratic and reformist aspirations of millions of Zimbabwean youth. Roughly 62 percent of the Zimbabwean population is below 25 years of age.

ZANU-PF has held a stranglehold on the presidency since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.

25/07/2023

Zimbabwe goes to polls on 23 August to elect councillors, MPs and a president. If there is no outright winner in the presidential vote, a run-off will be held on 2 October. Of the 12 candidates, the front runners are two:
- Incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa (80), of Zanu-PF party.
- Nelson Chamisa (45), of the Citizen's Coalition for Change.
The economy remains the top issue in Zimbabwe where year-on-year inflation reached 176% in June.

27/06/2023

Provisional results released by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone show the incumbent Julius Maada Bio of SLPP leading with 1,067,666 votes while his closest rival Samura Kamara of APC is second with 793,751 votes. The results represent votes from 60 percent of total polling stations.

19/06/2023

June 24 Presidential Elections. The political history of has been complex and chaotic, with both successful and unsuccessful periods.

1808: The British Crown Colony of Sierra Leone is founded.
1961: Sierra Leone becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1964: Sir Milton Margai dies, and the SLPP is divided over his successor.
1967: The APC comes to power in a landslide election.
1991: Civil War begins.
2002: Civil War ends.
2007: Ernest Bai Koroma is elected president.
2012: Koroma is re-elected president.
2018: Julius Maada Bio is elected president.
2023: Presidential elections.

31/05/2023

16/05/2023

Sierra Leone’s main opposition candidate is Dr Samura Kamara. Dr Kamara, the runner-up in the last presidential election, is a politician and economist who has previously served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone and Financial Secretary.

Sierra Leone enters this 2023 election season under the strain of heightened economic and political tensions.

08/05/2023

will hold presidential and legislative elections on June 24. President Julius Maada Bio is seeking a second 5-year term in 2023. Despite a legacy of competitive elections and peaceful transfers of power, Sierra Leone enters this election season under the strain of heightened economic and political tensions. A new wrinkle in the 2023 legislative elections is that they will be run under a proportional representation (PR) rather than the customary constituency-based first-past-the-post electoral system. Bio came into office in 2018 after defeating Samura Kamara of the incumbent APC party with 52% in the second round of voting in a process deemed credible by international observers.

- Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.

14/04/2023

Nigeria has a complicated economy that is both diverse and mixed with traditional and modern industries. The oil and gas industry contributes more than 50% of all government revenue and almost 85% of all export earnings. Nigeria has also not held a national census since 2006, with one scheduled for May 2023. The United Nations projects that her population - currently estimated at more than 200 million - will quadruple by 2050.

Nigeria has not held a national census since 2006. Nigeria's population is currently estimated at more than 200 million.

25/02/2023

It's voting day in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. Here are some key statistics to note on today's elections.

✓ 18 Political Parties
✓ 93,469,008 Registered Voters
✓ 1,491 Electoral Constituencies
✓ 774 Local Government Area
✓ 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards
✓ 176,846 Polling Units
✓ 15,331 Contestants

21/02/2023

🇳🇬 As Nigerians prepare to vote in the presidential election to be held on 25 February 2023, today we look at the its history. Nigeria has a long and complex history. It is not only the most populous country in Africa, but it is also the largest Black nation in the world. One out of every five persons on African origin in the world is Nigerian. The country has a rich historical heritage that includes the Kingdom of Nri, the Benin Empire, and the Oyo Empire.

Nigeria has a long and complex history. It is home to a diverse range of ethnic groups and has a rich cultural heritage.

17/01/2023

🇳🇬 will hold general election on 25 February 2023. In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule and established itself as a federal parliamentary democracy led by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the first and only Prime Minister of Nigeria. Overall, Nigeria’s journey towards democracy has been marked by both progress and setbacks, and the country continues to work towards building a more stable and inclusive democratic system.

Overall, Nigeria's journey towards democracy has been marked by both progress and setbacks since independence in 1960.

10/11/2022

suffered its second coup of the year when Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the 34-year-old head of an artillery unit of the Armed Forces of Burkina Faso, declared himself head of state on September 30. The coup ousted the previous junta leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Traoré justified his seizure of power on Burkina Faso’s deteriorating security situation. Damiba had led an earlier coup in January 2022, similarly claiming he would address the country’s security crisis.

Two coups d’état in 9 months mark the latest inflection point in Burkina Faso’s political instability.

15/09/2022

President William Ruto will need to inform the public of the true state of the country's economy, threats the economy confronts, the short to mid-term plans and whether the nation will be called to tighten its belt. Otherwise, unexpected remedies will have a political cost, however reasonable. According to a 2021 report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of Kenyans living in poverty has increased by 15% since 2013.

According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of Kenyans living in poverty has increased by 15% from 2013.

05/09/2022

Angola has a unique electoral system. Its main peculiarity is that it involves voters electing the president, deputy president and members of parliament simultaneously with a single mark on a single ballot paper. This has a negative impact on the quality of the country’s representative democracy. Hence, the need for reform.

How does the system work?

Angola uses a closed-list proportional representation electoral system. Voters vote for lists of candidates drawn up by political parties.

25/08/2022

has an interesting voting system called double simultaneous voting. Voters cast a single ballot for a party instead of multiple ballots for president and members of parliament. That means a voter cannot vote differently for specific candidates at each level of representation. Seats in the legislature are allocated in proportion to the share of the votes a party receives.

24/08/2022

🇦🇴 votes today in an elections where President João Lourenço and the ruling MPLA are set to win. Vote counting for the 2022 polls is to be done centrally rather than at the local level, defying electoral best practice. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has maintained continuous control over Angolan politics since 1975 and appears intent on ensuring this remains the case after the 2022 elections.

The ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has maintained continuous control over Angolan politics since 1975.

03/08/2022

These courses are free and open to the public, in both English and French.
https://mooc.africtivistes.org/en_GB/slides

L’expression du suffrage universel est un droit inaliénable des peuples conformément à la déclaration de l'Union Africaine sur les principes régissant les élections démocratiques en Afrique et l’article 17 de la CADEG.

01/08/2022

🇰🇪 This vulnerability of the Kenyan political process is perpetuated by the organization of political parties around ethnicity and personality rather than ideology, heightening perceptions of what is at stake. It has also perpetuated a seeming stasis of leading presidential candidates from election to election, handicapping prospects for more reformist candidates. That said, neither Ruto nor Odinga are Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, portending a shift in ethnic alliances, regardless of who emerges victorious.

The headline of Kenya’s presidential elections is the forthcoming succession from President Uhuru Kenyatta.

13/07/2022

First-Past-the-Post and Proportional Representation are both electoral systems and/or methods used to elect representatives during elections into power. Both voting systems are applicable in different countries around the world based on territorial vastness and/or other given considerations. In Sierra Leone, however, the nature of our governance system has refined what used to be a parliamentary set-up.


By Ibrahim Sahr Kamara.

First-Past-the-Post and Proportional Representation are both electoral systems used to elect representatives during elections into power.

28/06/2022

🇰🇪 In less than two months Kenya will hold general elections, on the 9th of August. While ethnic mathematics have long been a significant factor in Kenyan elections, it is the economy that now dominates conversations in political campaigns and within the electorate. What has changed?

Kenya will hold general elections on the 9th of August. Ethnic mathematics have long been a significant factor in Kenyan elections.

16/05/2022

's presidential elections were eventually held, and the country now has a new president. In a final round of vote by legislators, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the president of Somalia from 2012 to 2017 defeated incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo). The presidential elections in Somalia were initially scheduled for December 2020, but were postponed due to logistical issues and disagreements about the monitoring process. We wrote about Somalia's indirect electoral system here.

https://pollsafrica.com/2021/01/28/somalia-presidential-election-february-8/

Somalia, amidst al-Shabaab challenges, votes on 8 February. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmajo), is seeking reelection.

05/05/2022

Africa has seen a reversal in term limit norms since 2015. Since that time, leaders of 13 countries have evaded or overseen the further weakening of term limit restrictions that had been in place.

- Africa Center for Strategic Studies & Brookings.