Building trust in the Electoral Process in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Introduction
Elections have over time, fostered the principles of representative democracy, allowing the
people to give their input in matters of national importance such as, the choices of government
leadership and policies. They have facilitated the emergence of democratic governments in
Ghana, South Africa, Benin, Mali, Senegal etc. as well as ushering other countries such as
Liberia, Guinea and Niger into a more stable country following their recoveries from
authoritarian rule and protracted civil wars. Yet, elections entails competitive processes, which
may spiral into tensions and conflicts that have, and seek to threaten, the social order,
economic development, and efforts used in developing these African countries. Elections
appear to be one of the recent causes of conflicts. Issues of tensions and conflicts do not just
erupt from nowhere. They usually stem from built up mistrust in the electoral processes.
Factors such as electoral violence, political instigations as well as the general issues of
corruption, non-performance, and underperformance of the electoral management body
(EMB), overtime, can erode a people’s trust in democratic processes such as elections. The
challenges posed by election related conflicts and political violence underscore the importance
of building trust in the electoral processes in a way that, balances competition with order,
participation with stability and contestation with consensus.
An “electoral system refers to a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are
conducted and how their results are determined. Political electoral systems are organized by
governments, while non-political elections may take place in private institutions”. (Sisk, 2017).
This paper is concerned with the former, and seeks to recount the view that, an electoral
process is rarely the ultimate or only cause of grievances in a society, or the single solution for
its challenges. It is only one component of a country’s constitutional design (Halff, 2016).
Building confidence in elections is more than ensuring compliance with legal obligations, or the
effective performance of the electoral management body, or the absence of electoral
malpractice (Halff, 2016). Indeed, the basis for public trust is shaped by the broader political
context in which elections take place, not just by the quality of the electoral process itself,
hence such an approach has important policy implications. (Halff, 2016)

Electoral processes in Africa.

An electoral process is one that basically reflects a country’s constitutional design,
which informs how governmental heads are to be elected into an office(s) they want to vie for.
In Ghana for instance, article 46 of the 1992 Constitution guarantees the independence of the
Electoral Commission (EC) and assigns it with the electoral mandate of the nation.
This section of this paper, seeks to look at how the electoral processes generally transpires in
Africa. In two parts, the purpose of this section is to understand or be abreast with the various
facets applied, as well as examples of countries that have had a poor electoral system and
countries that have it better.
To begin with, the electoral architecture per Africa’s electoral exercises’ mainly involves three
key phases. Pre-voting, Voting and Post-Voting. Each individual phase has several
components, but has been put in concise terms for the purpose of this paper below:
Pre-voting: In the pre-voting phase, electoral frameworks may be developed or refined.
Boundaries are defined to ascertain voter eligibility. During this phase, voter and civic
education, voter registration, party nominations, and electoral campaigns also take place.
(Intenational Peace Institute (IPI), 2011)
Voting: In addition to the casting of votes, this phase also includes vote counting and the
verification of results. (Intenational Peace Institute (IPI), 2011)
Post-voting: The post-voting period includes all of the activities that ideally occur between
elections. Voter lists may be updated. Post-election reviews may take place in which electoral
laws and institutions are analyzed to determine how they can be strengthened. Finally,
procedures may then be put in place to strengthen those laws and institutions. (Intenational
Peace Institute (IPI), 2011). These have invariably been the trend followed by most African
countries in executing electoral processes. The general outlook is that, African countries have
experienced peaceful elections but have had a few or more cases of a complete opposite. In
Kenya for instance, looking at the period 2007 and 2008 experienced episodes of intertribal
clashes that erupted during the standoff between the incumbent at the time, Moi Kibaki and the
opposition at the time, Raila Odinga. This resulted in the loss of approximately 1,300 lives and
displacement of another thousand. (Intenational Peace Institute (IPI), 2011) The years, 1992
and 1997 went through a similar turmoil. This was typically met with a widespread sexual
violence against women. This ultimately marred the post-election phase. Cooperatively, Kenya
has put in efforts’ to avoid a repetition in subsequent elections held. Elsewhere in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the latter part of 2011 reportedly held presidential and national
assembly elections amidst ongoing violence between forces of government and rebel groups
in the eastern part of the country (Intenational Peace Institute (IPI), 2011). This informs the
poor setting for electoral processes, however, Ghana on the other hand has had an impressive
progressive rate of handling peaceful elections notwithstanding, minimum interruptions such as
ballot snatching and disagreements’ at polling stations. (Colloquium on African Elections,
2009)

Building Trust: General Challenges in building trust in relation to Electoral processes

Discussions in relation to the erosion of public trust have lingered in and around households
and communities at large. Citizens’ distrust in government, politicians, political parties and
representative institutions’ have indeed ripened over time amongst the populace and an
electoral process is not spared from this perception (Bertsou, 2019). Losing faith in the
governmental institutions and its officials indefinitely trickles down and eventually affects the
processes involved in churning out these very officers of government. As mentioned earlier,
Factors such as but not limited to electoral violence, political instigations as well as the general
issues of corruption, non-performance, and underperformance of the electoral management
body (EMB), can erode a people’s trust in democratic processes such as elections.
Electoral Violence has sought to dominate the sphere of elections for the longest time in Africa.
This can be attributed to a number of causes. Violators’ of elections tend to act out based on
the devotion or allegiance they may have towards aspirants. They are mostly convinced that
the person they support, ought to win at all cost. Unverified rumors where aspirants are made
out to have connived with polling agents to rig elections to favor a particular aspiring candidate
disseminated into public. At times these kind of rumors are reiterated by party on social media
and traditional media such as television or radio stations. This goes to damage or soil election
integrity yet such perpetrators do not go through any investigation nor are they levelled with
any charges or penalized for such deeds. This may settle down in the minds of the populace
and act as an agent of erosion of trust in the electoral process.

In relation to the subject of trust, the continuous and subsequent dissemination of inaccurate
hearsays which lack verification and authentication leads to a number of disgruntled folks.
Politically motivated instigations made by highly influential political personalities and at times
religious personalities who may do this intentionally to discredit Electoral Management Body, in
the eyes of the populace adds to the growing distrust the public may have in the electoral
processes to harness sympathy or agitate the masses to warrant unsolicited responsiveness.
Little is done to these personalities

Tackling the issue of political influences in the electoral sphere. Politically motivated
instigations highly influential political personalities and at times religious personalities who
intentionally discredit EMB in the eyes of the populace adds to the growing distrust the public
may have in the electoral processes to harness sympathy or agitate the masses to warrant
unsolicited responsiveness.

Electoral Challenges’ during Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on trust in the electoral process.
The year, 2019 to the early part of 2021, has been an extremely difficult year for managing
elections especially in Africa. This global pandemic compounded the complexities already
faced by the continent in resolving the competition for political power through credible,
peaceful elections. In countries such as Burundi and Uganda, incumbents under the guise of
the pandemic sought to strengthen their grip on power as elections were underway, exploiting
health measures to be observed in public to restrict competition and election observation
(Omondi, 2021). In Ethiopia, using the pandemic as an excuse, the elections was postponed
by government, a choice that was highly opposed and also heightened tensions amongst
political groups. Recognized democratic governments such as Malawi and Ghana, were met
with a degree of resistance in enforcing public health safeguards along with the coordinating
elections. There were cases of shortages of protective gears and the additional need to
educate the public on the need to participate in electoral processes once protective measures
have been adhered to. Additionally, Voting and counting of ballot papers were conducted in
ways that ensured voters and poll agents were safeguarded, all the while ensuing the whole
process was transparent enough to earn public trust. Reality of the health crises were heavily
borne by citizens’ monitoring and international election observers which negatively impacted
their role to witness campaigns and electoral procedures’. In-country observers exercised
innovative ways of observing elections in order to adhere to public safety requirements and
international observers resorted to virtual techniques to compensate for travel restrictions
during the elections held in June 2020 and December 2020 by Malawi and Ghana respectively.
(Omondi, 2021)
The stages of building trust: Prospects

Complete trust in election processes is likely a far reaching goal in today’s polarized political
environment. However, it is highly likely to have trustworthy elections, ones that impartial
observers can agree are free and fair, experts say. Election audits could be akin to financial
audits – activities that occur regularly, follow established and clear professional procedures
goes a long way to sustain confidence in the electoral process.
In general, there are really only two major factors that affect voter trust in an election, says
Professor Stewart. The first is whether their candidate won or not. The second is whether they
personally had to wait in a long line to cast their ballot.

Trust in elections might also be helped by enacting some basic safeguards against flaws in the
electoral system exposed in post-election struggles.