Politics
African election schedule 2012
Kenyan officials prepare ballot boxes. PHOTO/Antony Gitonga/REUTERS
A dozen African countries will be either holding or have planned elections this year; fittingly flagged off by the oft-praised democracy that is Senegal which holds polls on February 26.
Many of the countries voting this year will definitely be at wits end as to how to fund their elections from their weak economies with Zimbabwe, Somalia and Guinea Bissau good examples.
For others, a lack of issues and a focus on personality-driven politics will be the defining, if not recurring, theme. Think Kenya, Angola, Lesotho.
And for the rest, the candidates up for election could be interchangeable, such are their careers interlinked with the incumbent governments: Senegal, Ghana and Madagascar spring to the forefront here.
Last year Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Liberia, Gambia, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, and Sao Tome and Principe held closely watched elections, with varying outcomes, but indicative of an inclination to hold regular elections, even if some like The Gambia’s were dodgily organized.
