« The electoral process in Africa is severely tested with the guardianship of the body responsible for organizing the elections, the rigging of the elections once they organized ballot stuffing, falsification of Minutes, manipulation of voter lists, the mismanagement of electoral maps, the use of state resources, the militarization of the state media, intimidation of opponents. With the wave of democratization hitherto marked by the one-party political systems, pluralism has won all his titles of nobility and universal value. And pluralistic elections have become a reality punctuated political life on the African continent. The elections in 2015 and 2016 fall accidentally in a context of violence. The African Diaspora face the challenges of the electoral process of the continent. In fact, the resurgence of conflicts generated by violent protests of the election results »

"For many years, football matches have been played the most competitive in Africa. For months, meetings provoked endless debates. The early 90s marked a break with the advent of multiparty elections. Soon, electoral competition became the most popular sport. And as the experts agree to say, just like football matches, some elections deserve to be applauded, others are tragic parodies, but most are between these two extremes. Twenty years after the start of the era of multiparty elections in Africa, while 60 elections (presidential, legislative and local) are included in this calendar year, these three trends persist. Last March, Benin experienced its fifth wave of national elections since 1991. The current president, Yayi Boni, won a second term and his party retained a majority in parliament. Despite allegations of fraud launched by some leaders of the opposition, observers say the poll was fair.Just as in Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Mauritius, Botswana and South Africa, elections in this small country in West Africa, long subscribed to military coups have become the example to follow in the continent.These countries have much in common, including an active civil society, a vibrant and free press, an independent electoral commission, a competitive political landscape and a widely shared respect for the rule of law (see box).The violent demonstrations before or after the proclamation of results, there are infrequent.And it is not uncommon for transfers of power following a victory of the opposition, are undertaken in a peaceful manner."Most of these plans are the result of a compromise negotiated over relatively long periods.The competition of elites for power is made according to commonly accepted rules "notes Achille Mbembe, a political scientist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa).Other elections, however, reveal a different trend.As stated by a former president of the Republic of Congo, Pascal Lissouba, who once said that "one does not organize elections for losing" such competitions are mostly cosmetic operations to legitimize the status quo .They often take place in countries where the same leaders have been in power for ten years or more.Just a few months before the popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt will cause the fall strongmen, most elections in North Africa were in this category.Counting of votes after the 2006 election in the Democratic Republic of Congo.If some elections after the war helped promote democracy, others favored the continuation of the "war by other means".Currently, a dozen sub-Saharan African countries have the same leaders for over twenty years, says Almamy Cyllah, Africa Director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), think tank based in Washington.These leaders win elections in various ways, including by suppressing the opposition parties or "the prohibition, by behaving in a way that these parties are boycotting the election as a whole, by monopolizing state resources or the media, by intimidating voters or by defrauding altogether. "Somewhere between these extremes lies a majority of African elections.Despite having been marred by the usual cases of fraud and violence in several regions, the conduct of the last election in Nigeria last April, was applauded.Analysts believe that the election won by President Goodluck Jonathan was the most perfect that the country has ever known.A few months earlier, Guinea, 52 years of dictatorship ended with an election that seemed unlikely.Alpha Conde, a long-time opponent, became the first democratically elected president since independence.Such scenarios will certainly recur in future elections."In all probability, most of these countries will not experience political change or viable elections in the near future, not before the death of the current leader and perhaps even later," says Cyllah àAfrique Renewal.In these countries, says Mbembe, "power elites (...) could unilaterally impose a pace of political opening.In determining only the outlines, the nature and content they have enacted rules that, while sacrificing the most basic aspects of competition, nevertheless allow them to maintain their control over the main levers of the state and of the economy. "