COMMENT: Algeria and Sudan are engulfed by protests against leaders who have overstayed their welcome. Their stories are vital and need to be told, but we must also recognise that a number of other countries may soon follow suit.
Algeria and Sudan are engulfed by protests against leaders who have overstayed their welcome. Their stories are vital and need to be told, but we must also recognise that they are not exceptional and a number of other countries may soon follow suit.
Despite the fact that term-limits have been respected in many countries, and that occasional transfers of power have led to a number of changes of government in the continent’s more democratic states, this means that a large number of countries are governed by an increasingly entrenched and uncompromising group of old men.
The onset of the multi-party era was supposed to have changed all this. With a small number of exceptions, the vast majority of countries introduced presidential term-limits that were intended to stop one individual from gaining a monopoly on power. This process was not just driven by the spread of American norm.
In Algeria, this was exacerbated by the poor health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who, at 82, was seeking re-election for a fifth term in office. Yet the protests were about much more than his lack of dynamism, channelling widespread anger at the extent of corruption and the failure of the “system”, or “pouvoir”, to deliver for the people.
Further progress towards either democratic consolidation or more effective government is unlikely in any of these countries while the current leadership remains in place.The threat posed by life presidents to democracy and development in Africa is real and growing. During the research for our book How to Rig an Election, Brian Klaas and I found that on average the chances of an election being manipulated increased every year a leader was in power.
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