ISS Seminar, Pretoria: Perspectives on elections and election-related violence in Africa 2010-2011
Date: 2010-12-01
Venue: ISS Conference Room,
Block C, Brooklyn Court,
361 Veale Street,
New Muckleneuk,
(Parking in Brooklyn Mall and ABSA Court)
RSVP: Ms M Maluleke
Tel: 012 346 9500
012 460 0997
[email protected]
Presented by the African Conflict
Prevention Programme
The decade of the 1990s
marked a new dawn in Africa’s political history. The liberalisation of the
hitherto constricted political spaces and the establishment of democratic
systems in many countries changed the rules of political power and
socialisation in Africa. This was the product of a confluence of external and
internal forces, not least, the demise of the Cold War, which for many years
had shielded Africa’s numerous despots and autocrats from any meaningful
external and even internal scrutiny. Elections have been the popular form of
expression of the new democratic wave on the continent. While a number of
African countries have been able to establish viable and functional democratic
systems, which have, for example, allowed for the peaceful and orderly transfer
of power from one elected regime to another; many others however are yet to
benefit from the so called democratic revolution of the 1990s.
Overall, the balance sheet of post-1990 electoral democracy
in Africa has been mixed. In some countries, elections have contributed to the
consolidation of viable democratic systems; but in others, they seem to have
contributed to deepening existing social cleavages. Consequently elections have
become a primary source of conflict, instability and insecurity, raising serious questions over the
viability of electoral democracy in the continent. With an active electoral
calendar in 2010 evidenced by more than 10 presidential and legislative
elections on the continent, as well as several polls projected for 2011, the
retrospection on electoral democracy is ever pertinent. Anticipated polls in
2011 include the self-determination referendum in South Sudan and possible presidential
elections in Madagascar, Nigeria, Egypt, Uganda and Zimbabwe, to name but a
few. This seminar therefore aims at taking a critical look at the state of
electoral processes in Africa, and to examine the political, cultural and
socio-economic contexts in which they are organised, with a view to explaining
the causes of electoral violence and leadership alternation or lack thereof. It
seeks to explore the promise and challenges of holding elections on the
continent with a focus on 2010 and 2011.
Programme
- 09h00-09h30: Registration
-
09h30-09h45: Introduction:
Electoral Processes in Africa, 2010-2011: An Overview Dr. Francis Ikome, Head, African Conflict
Prevention Programme (ACPP), ISS, Pretoria.
- 09h45-10h15: Electoral Formulae, Electoral
Commissions, and Leadership Alternations
in Africa Dr. Issaka K. Souaré, ACPP, Pretoria
- 10h15-10h45: Election-related
Violence: Issues, Challenges
and
Mechanisms for Prevention Dr David Zounmenou, ACPP, Pretoria & Mr
Martin Ewi, International Crime in Africa Programme, ISS, Pretoria
- 10h45-11h45: Discussions
- 11h45-12h00: Tea
& Coffee break
Case studies
- 12h00-12h20: West
Africa: Dr. David Zounmenou, ACPP, Pretoria
- 12h20-12h40: East
Africa and the Horn: Dr. Emmanuel Kisiangani, ACPP, Pretoria
- 12h40-13h10: Southern
Africa Dr. Judy Smith-Höhn
& Ms Dimpho Motsamai, ACPP,
Pretoria
- 13h10-13h30: Central
and North Africa, Dr Francis
Ikome, Head, ACPP, Pretoria.
- 13h30-14h30: Discussions
- 14h30-14h45: Conclusion
& Way Forward, Dr Paul-Simon Handy, Director Research, ISS
- 14h45: Lunch
ISS Rules:
Participants are free to use the
information presented. However,
neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers, nor that of any other
participant may be revealed without his/her express permission.
