Elections and Stability in West Africa: The Way Forward

Two decades ago, autocratic regimes were the rule in West Africa. Today, multiparty elections are relatively routine in the region, illustrated by the large number of elections conducted in West African countries in recent years. These elections provide insights into some of the strengths and weaknesses of the electoral process. Successful transfers of power in countries such as Senegal, Guinea, and Niger—the latter two following authoritarian rule and military coups—have resulted in significant progress toward peace and stability in the region. However, despite positive trends, observers have reported irregularities in a number of recent elections in the region. Indeed, West Africa has also seen election-related crises, and election-related violence remains a concern. Coups d’état took place just before scheduled elections in Mali and Guinea-Bissau in March and April of 2012, and earlier high-profile cases of election violence in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria served as reminders of how elections can trigger violence, with serious implications for national and regional stability. Periodic and genuine elections are seen as a key component for enhancing the legitimacy of a government and strengthening the social contract between citizens and their governments. However, while critical to building democracies, elections are only one component of the democratic and legitimization process. And in the absence of other structural, institutional, and normative democratic conditions to absorb and resolve tensions that might arise during and after the electoral process, elections can present windows of vulnerability that introduce a real risk of violence. Given their competitive nature, in certain circumstances elections can increase the salience of ethnic, religious, and other societal differences, allowing actors to mobilize them for partisan purposes, triggering violence. Since election-related violence can in turn undermine democracy by eroding people’s faith in the democratic process, electoral-assistance providers have started to make peaceful, credible, and sustainable elections a priority. A broad consensus is emerging around the idea that, in order to prevent violence, elections should be viewed as a process rather than an event. In other words, an election cannot be viewed as an end in itself, but must be part of a larger and longer-term process of democratization. In Africa, approximately 19 to 25 percent of all electoral processes experience mid to high levels of violence according to some studies. In many West On September 26, 2011, the International Peace Institute (IPI) hosted a seminar entitled “Elections and Stability in West Africa: The Way Forward,” organized in partnership with the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division (EAD). This roundtable discussion followed the May 2011 regional conference on elections and stability in West Africa, which took place in Praia, Cape Verde.