Elections in Africa: A Fading Shadow of Democracy?

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Abstract
Elections constitute an important element in liberal democracy. They are a viable means of ensuring the orderly process of leadership succession and change and an instrument of political authority and legitimation. The failure of elections or their absence largely defines the predominance of political dictatorships and personalized rule in Africa. The current wave of democratic enthusiasm has evoked a process of competitive and multiparty elections. This has provided a platform for the civil society to make political claims on the state. However, both the structure and process of elections, the former being the organizational infrastructure for managing elections and the latter, the precepts and procedures of elections, remain largely perverted. Election rigging and brigandage, violence and election annulment are common practices. The trend is towards a reversal to the old order of despotic political rulership under the guise of civil governance. Elections in their current form in most African states appear to be a fading shadow of democracy, endangering the fragile democratic project itself.