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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: It's been dubbed Africa's Year of Elections, But has twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four been a bad year for democracy?

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Speaker 1: Its comminates from the elections that they had highly contested.

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Speaker 1: The results are very controversial, and the opposition leader of

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Speaker 1: financial Mont Glande announced four waves of protests that quickly

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Speaker 1: escalated turned violent, plans people their lives, about one hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty one injured, with.

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Speaker 2: Many elections marred by voter suppression, vote rigging, and even corruption.

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Speaker 2: One commentator has called this year quote hard to watch.

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Speaker 2: With peaceful transfers of power like that's in Botswana and

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Speaker 2: Maurcius now few and far between.

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Speaker 3: We will begin all administrative work to facilitate the transition,

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Speaker 3: and I assure you that I will not take any

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Speaker 3: actions to hinder or slow down this process.

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Speaker 2: On this episode of Next Africa Podcast, we'll ask what's

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Speaker 2: happened to the safety rails meant to protect democracy in

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Speaker 2: Africa and if anything can be done to turn the tide.

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Speaker 2: I'm Jennifer Zabastaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast,

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Speaker 2: bringing you one story each week from the continent driving

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Speaker 2: the future of global growth. With the context only Bloomberg

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Speaker 2: can provide. So joining us this week is Justice Malala,

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Speaker 2: a political commentator and author and also a Bloomberg columnist. Justice,

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Speaker 2: thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: How are you doing.

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Speaker 4: I'm good, I'm good. It's good to be with you,

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Speaker 4: to be with your listeners.

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Speaker 2: It's great to speak again. I remember you and I

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Speaker 2: spoke actually just before the South African elections earlier this year,

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Speaker 2: which is why this piece that you have out for

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg Opinion is fascinating to us. It's quite stark, is

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Speaker 2: it's called Africa's Year of Elections has been flawed. Tell

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Speaker 2: us why you came to that conclusion. What's behind the title.

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Speaker 4: Well, you know, there was so much hope, Joanne, at

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Speaker 4: the beginning of the year when you looked ahead and

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Speaker 4: said nineteen elections if you count the parliamentary elections in

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Speaker 4: places like Senegal, whether we're going to have two bounds

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Speaker 4: of election, you thought, oh, you know, this is a

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Speaker 4: deepening of the democracy. We're going to see more people participating,

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Speaker 4: more people having a say in how their countries are governed.

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Speaker 4: And so as the year rolled out, beginning with Commerce

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Speaker 4: in January, Senegal in February and so forth, you started saying,

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Speaker 4: what's going on here? And you know that hope began

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Speaker 4: to diminish a bit, and you started saying, oh, this

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Speaker 4: is not looking great, and so forth. So by May

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Speaker 4: when you and I spoke in Johannesburg, South Africa, just

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Speaker 4: just days before that election on May twenty nine, and

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Speaker 4: it was up in the air. It was a real competition.

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Speaker 4: We didn't know who was going to win, We didn't

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Speaker 4: know about what margin.

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Speaker 5: What this election has made plain is that the people

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Speaker 5: of South Africa expect their leaders to work together to

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Speaker 5: meet their needs. They expect the parties for which they have.

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Speaker 6: Voted to find common ground, to overcome their differences, to

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Speaker 6: act and work together for the good of everyone.

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Speaker 4: That turned out okay, but essentially the majority of these

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Speaker 4: elections turned out to be disappointing. They didn't uphold many

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Speaker 4: of the key tenets of what a democratic election should

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Speaker 4: look like. Turnout was poor, results were largely contested, and

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Speaker 4: in many instances, like Mozambique, at the moment it turned

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Speaker 4: into violence. So the hope that was there did not

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Speaker 4: come through as we expected at this point in the year.

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Speaker 2: And just as you mentioned Mozambique. There we've been following

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Speaker 2: what's been happening on the ground. But outside of that,

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Speaker 2: are there other elections that particularly stood out to you

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Speaker 2: from this year that sort of symbolize the flawed nature

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Speaker 2: of I guess democracy on the continent.

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Speaker 4: Well, I mean, look, it's a mixed bag. And it's

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Speaker 4: not a mixed bag. It's a mixed bag in the sense.

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Speaker 4: You know, I could start with where you and I began,

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Speaker 4: and that's South Africa. You know, the A and C,

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Speaker 4: after thirty years in power below fifty percent, loses its

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Speaker 4: majority and says I lost and I'd like to sit

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Speaker 4: down with the opposition and form a coalition. And that's

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Speaker 4: that's fantastic, that's good, that's great. You have Botswana, you

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Speaker 4: have Senegal, you have Mauritius, and we can talk about those.

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Speaker 7: And then on the.

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Speaker 4: Other hand, you have a country like Togo where an

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Speaker 4: election is held where they ruling the governing party wins,

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Speaker 4: and that means that the incumbent continues his nineteen year

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Speaker 4: stay in power, and you you try to remember, oh,

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Speaker 4: when last did this happen? And you see that his

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Speaker 4: father was in power for forty years before that, and

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Speaker 4: so you see these these sham elections where they are

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Speaker 4: dressed up they look good in the suit of democracy,

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Speaker 4: but just underneath it's it's a rigged election. It's not

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Speaker 4: it's not free and fair. It's it's meant to look

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Speaker 4: to the outside world like a good election, when when

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Speaker 4: it's patently not.

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Speaker 2: In your piece, just as you get into some of

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Speaker 2: the regional bodies on the African continent, you talk about

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Speaker 2: the African Union, you talk about eco AS, there's also SADEK,

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Speaker 2: which is the Southern African Development Community, do you believe

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Speaker 2: they could have done more? Do you believe international observers

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Speaker 2: could have done more? I mean, who do you sort

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Speaker 2: of lay the blame on this on.

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Speaker 7: There are two elements to it.

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Speaker 4: I think the one is the political continental level. I

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Speaker 4: think leaders on the continent should be very clear that

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Speaker 4: institutions such as the Sadak Observation Mission or the eco

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Speaker 4: AS Observation Mission, the AU Electoral Observation Mission should be upstanding,

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Speaker 4: should not be subject to political manipulation, and should be

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Speaker 4: free to speak and speak clearly on elections and essentially

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Speaker 4: be the highest authority that speaks on a particular election.

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Speaker 4: You referenced earlier, on in our conversation Mozambique.

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Speaker 7: You know, Mozambique is classic.

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Speaker 4: You had the Southern African Development Community Observation Mission and

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Speaker 4: you had the EU Observation Mission. The SADAK mission arrived

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Speaker 4: and looked at less than one percent of the election

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Speaker 4: voting stations in the country and left saying, oh, it

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Speaker 4: looks fine. We didn't see any problem. You look at

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Speaker 4: the EU mission and it went to the far north

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Speaker 4: of the country. It visited places and said look alongside

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Speaker 4: organizations like Human Rights Watch and others and so forth,

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Speaker 4: and said, look, here are instances of ballot stuffing and

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Speaker 4: so forth and so forth. So in fact, if you

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Speaker 4: look at what the aftermath of that election was, where

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Speaker 4: people started rioting and saying this election was not free

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Speaker 4: and fair. We saw this with our own eyes. It

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Speaker 4: could have been foreseen and it wasn't foreseen by SADAK.

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Speaker 4: The SADAG mission, in my view, has been very poor,

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Speaker 4: poor for Africans. If you go back a year ago

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Speaker 4: to Zimbabwe, exactly the same thing happened. At least in

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Speaker 4: that case, the SADAK observer Mission said this was a

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Speaker 4: flawed election. It was political leaders who then protected the

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Speaker 4: government in power and didn't do anything about it. So

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Speaker 4: I think these missions could do better. The AU Observation

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Speaker 4: Election Mission has been very very poor. It said I

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Speaker 4: had from the first election in January in Commerce, it said, oh,

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Speaker 4: there was no incident whatsoever, when someone had died, when

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Speaker 4: tens of people had been shot and injured by police action,

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Speaker 4: when it was clear that things had not gone according

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Speaker 4: to plan. Even then they said, oh, it was without incident,

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Speaker 4: I think was the expression they used. And so you've

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Speaker 4: seen this in many other jurisdictions where it's just oh,

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Speaker 4: it's okay, and it's patently not.

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Speaker 2: Okay, and stick with us. Justice. When we come back,

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Speaker 2: we'll talk about some of the more positive examples, because

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Speaker 2: there are some, as you mentioned this year, and also

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Speaker 2: how things could perhaps turned around again. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back today on the podcast, we're looking into the

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Speaker 2: year of the elections and in particular in Africa and

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Speaker 2: really the health of democracy on the continent. Justice Malala

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Speaker 2: wrote a column for Bloomberg Opinion and he's joining us now.

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Speaker 2: So Justice, we talked about some of the examples earlier

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Speaker 2: this year, but there are some positive examples that you

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Speaker 2: get into in your piece. Most importantly, there's Botswana and

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Speaker 2: there's Mauritius. What stands out to you about the processes

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Speaker 2: that we saw in those two nations.

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Speaker 4: I think, first of all, the demospracies. Those demosplacies have

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Speaker 4: been going for a good while. The populace is engaged,

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Speaker 4: people wanted to take part, and they kept watch on

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Speaker 4: their politicians. They kept watch on their institutions that those

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Speaker 4: institutions with were fair, were able to do the work

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Speaker 4: that they needed to do. So they kept an eye,

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Speaker 4: particularly on the electoral commissions. In Botswana, there was a

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Speaker 4: lot of discussions beforehand in the media about, you know,

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Speaker 4: will these guys be able to handle a constitution and

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Speaker 4: an election of this magnitude and which is so highly

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Speaker 4: contest that for sixty years in Botswana you had the

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Speaker 4: Botsuana Democratic Party in power and without much contest, and

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Speaker 4: for the first time this year that looked like.

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Speaker 7: It was going to be an issue.

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Speaker 4: So the institutions in the particular country worked. In South

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Speaker 4: Africa you had the independent Electoral Commission. In Senegal you

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Speaker 4: had the Constitutional Court that worked and could deliver judgments

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Speaker 4: that everyone across the political spectrum could respect. So you

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Speaker 4: see in those countries, Senegal Mauritia, South Africa, Botuana, institutions

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Speaker 4: that really worked, that had come together. You saw a

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Speaker 4: free and fair media. You saw political actors participating properly

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Speaker 4: and without you know, threatening violence and so forth. Except

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Speaker 4: for we had that blip in Senegal in Fembrary when

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Speaker 4: Makissal tried to postpone the election and failed. And so

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Speaker 4: you could see the movement of democracy. You could see

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Speaker 4: the elements that I needed for a free and fair

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Speaker 4: election even beforehand. What was remarkable about all of these

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Speaker 4: elections is that immediately after losing, the incumbent said went

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Speaker 4: on television, addressed the nation and said I have lost

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Speaker 4: and I am handing over to the new guys. In Botswana,

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Speaker 4: it was fantastic to see the president Mucucy handing over

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Speaker 4: to du marbor Go, the young new leader.

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Speaker 7: In a matter of a day.

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Speaker 4: Same thing in Senegal at the beginning of the year

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Speaker 4: with Makissal over to the winner. And so these for

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Speaker 4: me are fantastic examples of what we can achieve on

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Speaker 4: the continent.

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Speaker 2: But justice does this mean? There's the positives right and

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Speaker 2: the negatives. And I wonder when we think about the

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Speaker 2: state of democracy on the continent after taking a look

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Speaker 2: at all of the elections this year, is your are

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Speaker 2: you confident in saying that support for democracy is potentially

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Speaker 2: eroding or do you think that's you know, that's not

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Speaker 2: actually true and there's more people who actually do want

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Speaker 2: to see more elections like Botswana and Mauritius.

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Speaker 4: Most Africans certainly want to see elections like Botswana and Mauritius.

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Speaker 4: If you look at the reception to the Botswana election result,

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Speaker 4: for example, you go to Na Robi, you go to Legos,

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Speaker 4: I trust the continent, people are saying, wow, look at

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Speaker 4: these guys. A young team has come in. As I

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Speaker 4: speak to you this week, we have elections in Namibia.

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Speaker 4: A lot of people are saying, oh, you know, the

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Speaker 4: contestant for the main party seventy two, and maybe it's

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Speaker 4: time to look around and.

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Speaker 7: Say where are the young people? Where the footy year olds?

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Speaker 4: The fifth You know, people look at Senegal and say, wow,

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Speaker 4: the new present is forty four. The new president of

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Speaker 4: Zona's fifty four, and people are saying it's time to

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Speaker 4: make ways. So, you know, you look at afric Barometer,

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Speaker 4: so much of the research that's done many many people

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Speaker 4: on the continent believe in democracy one democracy to work.

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Speaker 7: However, there has been some backsliding.

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Speaker 4: I think the past four years have been terrible for

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Speaker 4: the continent with the coups in the coup belt of

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Speaker 4: West Africa, whether it's Mali, Bekinna Faso and others, those

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Speaker 4: have really dented the image the idea of democracy on

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Speaker 4: the continent. But I don't think I don't think we

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Speaker 4: lose in the battle. I think that this is a

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Speaker 4: challenging time. I think that what you saw in Botswana,

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Speaker 4: hopefully we'll see in Maybia this week, will continue.

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Speaker 7: I mean a country like Kenya.

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Speaker 4: You know where young people stood up against tax increases

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Speaker 4: in June July this year. You know, it's very vibe

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Speaker 4: and young people will not allow that democracy to backslide.

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Speaker 4: All these places of their crisis. But I think that

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Speaker 4: the trajectree is northwards, it's upwards, and things do and

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Speaker 4: will get better.

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Speaker 2: All we can do is be hopeful. Justice really fantastic piece,

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Speaker 2: really interesting to take a step back at the year

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Speaker 2: that was. But appreciate your time so much. Thank you

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Speaker 2: for joining us, and you can of course read Justice's

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Speaker 2: piece on Bloomberg right now, as well as the full

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Speaker 2: coverage of all of this year's elections across Bloomberg platforms.

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Speaker 2: Here's a few other stories we're watching in the region

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Speaker 2: this week. Zimbabwe failed to pay state workers the ZIG

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Speaker 2: component of their salaries and bonuses in November, less than

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Speaker 2: two weeks after its treasury requested spending cuts on certain

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Speaker 2: budget items. The Southern African nation started paying employees salaries

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Speaker 2: in local currency and the rest in dollars back in

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Speaker 2: twenty sixteen to incentivize them and deal with sharp slumps

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Speaker 2: in the local unit. Unions are threatening to take action

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Speaker 2: if the money is not paid soon, and Kenyon lawmakers

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Speaker 2: called for an investigation into how independent power producers set

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Speaker 2: teriffs as part of a study into how the East

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Speaker 2: African nations over reliance on private generation facilities affects the

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Speaker 2: cost of electricity. Kenya has been racked by protests over

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Speaker 2: the high costs of living this year, in which dozens

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Speaker 2: of people have died. The demonstrations forced the government to

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Speaker 2: row back tax measures and cover a revenue shortfall by

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Speaker 2: pairing back spending and borrowing. And you can follow these

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Speaker 2: stories across Bloomberg, including the Next African Newsletter. Will of

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Speaker 2: course put a link to that in the show notes.

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Speaker 2: This program was produced by Adrian Bradley. Don't forget to

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Speaker 2: follow and review the show wherever you usually get your podcasts.

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Speaker 7: I'm Jennifer's Appasoja.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 7: As always,