Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-30T15:02:48.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fair? What Has Fairness Got to Do with It? Vagaries of Election Observations and Democratic Standards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The observation and monitoring of elections and referenda has become a ‘growth business’ in Africa since external and internal pressures have forced the leaders of one-party states to test their political legitimacy. The closely monitored 1991 presidential and parliamentary elections in Zambia heralded the first peaceful transition from a single to a multi-party system of governance with a change of leadership in English-speaking Africa. It marked the beginning of an era of confidence in the possibilities of democratic change, and confirmed the positive influence that international observers can have on such processes. Their presence was henceforth considered an essential pre-condition for acceptable transitional multi-party elections. The hopes that Zambia would indeed ‘set a standard for Africa’, and offer encouragement to nascent democratic movements on the continent have, however, remained elusive. More recent elections have been replete with controversy, intimidations, and violence. Despite being certified to varying degrees as free and fair by observers, the losers have contested the results—in Angola with arms, in Kenya and Ghana with threatened and actual boycotts.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The slogan of the Zambian Election Monitoring Co-ordination Committee, October 1991.

2 Africa Confidential (London), 34, 1, 1993.Google Scholar

3 Times of Zambia (Lusaka), 25 10 1991.Google Scholar

4 Gutto, Shadrack B.O., January 1993, during the discussion and debate held at the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, on the Kenyan elections.Google Scholar

5 Editorial in West Africa (London), 11–17 11 1991.Google Scholar

6 Daily Nation (Nairobi), 11 09 1992.Google ScholarAccording to Ryanga, Ruben, the Kenyan director of elections, when interviewed in Nairobi, 30 03 1993, the National Democratic Institute was simply rejected in favour of the International Republican Institute, and Atwood would have been free to join the invited American team.Google Scholar

7 Daily Nation, 11 September 1992, and Weekly Review (Nairobi), 18 09 1992. A German observer group, for example, was ostensibly not accredited because the 30 members were not all German parliamentarians, as apparently anticipated.Google Scholar

8 Odinga, Oginga of Ford-Kenya complained during the first Commonwealth mission in early June 1992 that only the British were being invited to observe the elections, implying that he considered them to be too sympathetic to President Moi and the Kenya African National Union (Kanu). The chairman of the Kenya Social Congress,Google ScholarAnyona, George, raised similar concerns later, as reported in Weekly Review, 10 June 1992, and Daily Nation, 2 November 1992.Google Scholar

9 Akwei, Adotei, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, New York, in a letter to The Independent (London), 29 01 1993.Google Scholar

11 Gutto, op. cit. p. 2.

12 Editorial in West Africa, 11–17 January 1993.

13 Editorial in Entertaining Eye (Accra), 29 10–6 11 1992.Google Scholar

14 Nairobi, 2 January 1993, personal communication to the Scandinavian-Canadian Observer Team, of which the author was a member.

15 Africa Confidential, 20 November 1992.

16 Commentator in a B.B.C. discussion programme, London, 19 January 1993.Google Scholar

17 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden, ‘Free and Fair: towards democratic governance’, International Electoral Institute Commission, Stockholm, 10 03 1993.Google Scholar

18 Anglin, Douglas G., ‘International Monitoring as a Mechanism for Conflict Resolution in Southern Africa’, Southern African Perspectives, Centre for Southern African Studies, University of the Western Cape, Belville, 1992, p. 25.Google Scholar

19 McCoy, Jennifer, Garber, Larry, and Pastor, Robert, ‘Pollwatching and Peacemaking’, in Journal of Democracy (Baltimore), 2, 4, 10 1991, p. 107.Google Scholar

20 Garber, Larry, Guidelines for International Election Observation (Washington, DC, International Human Rights Law Group, 1984), p. 18.Google Scholar

22 In Kenya in December 1992, many illiterate voters had to request the assistance of attendants at polling stations in sometimes doubtful circumstances. See Andreassen, Bård-Anders, Geisler, Gisela, and Tostensen, Arne, A Hobbled Democracy: the Kenya general elections 1992 (Bergen, 1993), p. 25.Google Scholar

23 The Commonwealth Observer Group in Kenya concluded, according to its news release dated 1 January 1993, that although the whole electoral process ‘cannot be given an unqualified rating as free and fair, the evolution of the process to polling day and the subsequent count was increasingly positive’ to a degree that justified the conclusion that the election results reflected the will of the people.

24 Garber, op. cit. pp. 16 and 29.

25 McCoy, Garber, and Pastor, loc. cit. p. 107.

26 Commonwealth Observer Group, The Presidential Elections in Ghana, 3 November 1992 (London, Commonwealth Secretariat, 1992).Google Scholar

27 See Yeboah-Afari's, Ajoa interview with Professor Adu Boahen, headed ‘I was … shocked’, in West Africa, 16–22 November 1992, pp. 1964–5.Google Scholar

28 People's National Convention Party, , ‘Reaction to the Interim Statement of the Commonwealth Observer Team’, Accra, n.d., reproduced in the report of the Commonwealth Observer Group (Ghana), op. cit. p. 128.Google Scholar

29 Joseph, Richard, ‘The Winning Formula’, in Africa Report (New York), 0102 1993, p. 45.Google Scholar

30 Commonwealth Observer Group, Ghana Elections, Farewell Statement, Accra, 6 November 1992.

31 See Commonwealth Observer Group, Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Zambia (London, Commonwealth Secretariat, 1991), p. 46, and the Carter Centre of Emory University and National Institute for International Affairs, ‘Statement from InternationalZ-Vote Delegation on Zambian Elections’, Lusaka, 2 November 1991.Google Scholar

32 Standard on Sunday (Nairobi), 3 January 1993.Google Scholar

33 Commonwealth Observer Group, The Presidential, Parliamentary and Civic Elections in Kenya, 29 December 1992 (London, Commonwealth Secretariat, 1993).Google Scholar

34 West Africa, 16–22 November 1992, and Commonwealth Observer Group (Ghana), op. cit. p. 17.Google Scholar

35 Jeffries, Richard and Thomas, Clare, ‘The Ghanaian Elections of 1992’, in African Affairs (London), 92, 368, 07 1983, p. 351.Google Scholar

36 Tvedten, Inge, ‘The Angolan Debacle’, in Journal of Democracy, 4, 2, 1993, pp. 108–18. Local monitors were, however, active earlier during the voter registration exercise.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 In Zambia, 6,800 local monitors complemented some 220 international observers, and managed to cover virtually all polling stations and counts during the October 1991 elections, according to Andreassen, Bård-Anders, Geisler, Gisela, and Tostensen, Arne, Setting a Standard for Africa (Bergen, Chr. Michelsen Institute, 1992), p. 102.Google Scholar In Ghana, the presence of 400 domestic observers during the November 1992 presidential elections was reported by Joseph, loc. cit. p. 45.

38 Anglin, op. cit. p. 41.

39 Suhrke, Astri, ‘Politisk turisme med FN-hatt’, in Dagbladet (Oslo), 5 05 1993, p. 4.Google Scholar

40 Commonwealth Observer Group (Ghana), op. cit. pp. 13 and 15–16.Google Scholar

41 Joseph, loc. cit. p. 45.

42 Commonwealth Observer Group (Ghana), pp. 6 and 14.Google Scholar

43 Ibid. pp. 51–2 and 58.

44 Joseph, loc. cit.

45 Ofori, Ruby, ‘The Election Controversy’, in Africa Report, July–August 1993, pp. 33–5.Google Scholar

46 Boahen, Adu admitted his willingness in loc. cit. p. 1964 to ‘accept the report of the Carter Centre. If you read between the lines, what [it] is saying is that the election was very irregular in many respects, and highly questionable’.Google Scholar

47 Hempstone, Smith, quoted in Monthly News (Nairobi), 12 1992, pp. 19 and 21.Google Scholar

48 Redfern, Paul, ‘UK Starts to Get Off the Fence over Kenya's Poll’, in Daily Nation, 17 December 1992.Google Scholar

49 The Independent, 25 January 1993, reported a claim that ‘Mr Chesoni's pounds 550,000 debt had been written off on the orders of the government after he became chairman of the Electoral Commission’, and that this information had also been available to the Commonwealth.Google Scholar

50 Kuria, Manasses and Mwangi, Benjamin K., ‘The Road to Democracy’, draft report by the Peace Foundation Africa, Nairobi, 1992, pp. 21–3.Google Scholar

51 Commonwealth Observer Group, Kenya Elections, News Release, 31 December 1992.

52 Ibid. 1 January 1993.

53 ‘Summary of Swedish Election Observers’, Nairobi, n.d.

54 Given that the outspoken U.S. Ambassador had provoked the displeasure of both the Government and the Kanu-owned, Kenya Times (Nairobi), it is perhaps not surprising that the latter published on 25 10 1992 what reads like an obituary: ‘At long last Kenyans can breath a sign [sic] of relief. Ambassador Smith Hempstone of the United States is going back to where he came from’.Google Scholar

55 Hempstone, Smith, quoted in Sunday Nation (Nairobi), 3 01 1993.Google Scholar

56 According to an unofficial observer affiliated to the U.S. Agency for International Development, ‘international and domestic observers differed in their judgements on the extent of the fraud. While the former were more dismayed by the pace than the accuracy of the count, the latter were concerned with both’. See Barkan, Joel D., ‘Kenya: lessons from a flawed election’, in Journal of Democracy, 4, 3, 07 1993, p. 94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

57 National Election Monitoring Unit, ‘Public Statement by the Council of Elders and the Monitors Committee of NEMU’, Nairobi, 2 January 1993.Google Scholar

58 Sunday Nation, 3 March 1993.

59 The Multi-Party General Elections in Kenya, 19 December, 1992. Report of the National Election Monitoring Unit (Nairobi, 1993), p. 90.Google Scholar

60 Ibid. p. viii.

61 The Weekly Review, 12 March 1993, p. 10, merely stated that Nemu's final findings were hardly different from their initial statement after the elections.Google Scholar

62 Otani, Robert, ‘Expel Observers, Urges YK Official’, in Kenya Times, 22 December 1992.Google Scholar

63 Kenya Times, 1 January 1993, and Geekie, Russel, ‘Split Decision’, in Africa Report, March–April 1993, p. 18.Google Scholar

64 International Republican Institute, Kenya: the December 29, 1992 elections (Washington, DC, 1993), p. 54.Google Scholar

65 Georges, Judge Telford, quoted in Standard on Sunday, 3 January 1993.Google Scholar

66 Monthly News, December 1992, p. 19, and Sunday Nation, 3 January 1993.Google Scholar

67 Gutton, op. cit. p. 2.

68 Hempstone, Smith, quoted in Sunday Nation, 3 January 1993.Google Scholar

69 Atwood, Brian, ‘Kenya's Rigged Election’, in Christian Science Monitor (Boston), 84, 197, 4–17 09 1992.Google Scholar

70 Daily Nation, 11 September 1992.

71 Gachie's, John interview with the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Sir Walter Prendergast, was reported in Daily Nation, 3 December 1992, p. 4. See also, ‘The Foreign Influence’, in Monthly News, December 1992, p. 22.Google Scholar

72 Quoted in Daily Nation, 11 September 1992.

73 Atwood, loc. cit.

74 ‘Commonwealth Team Leader: Why the Kenyan Polls Might be Fair’, in Sunday Nation, 27 December 1992, p. 4.Google Scholar

75 Telford Georges, quoted in Geekie, loc. cit. p. 18.

76 Anyang'nyong'o, Peter, ‘Africa: the failure of one-party rule’, in Journal of Democracy, 2, 4, 1991, p. 92.Google Scholar

77 Hempstone, Smith, quoted in Monthly News, December 1992, p. 21.Google Scholar

78 World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa: from crisis to sustainable growth. A Long-Term Perspective Study (Washington, DC, 1989), p. xii.Google Scholar

79 Douglas Hurd, British Foreign Secretary, 6 Junes 1990, quoted in Ake, Claude, ‘Rethinking African Democracy’, in Journal of Democracy, 2, 1, 1991, pp. 3244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

80 Business Day (Johannesburg), 14 09 1992.Google Scholar

81 Ake, loc. cit. p. 41.

82 See, for example, Joseph, Richard, ‘Africa: the rebirth of political freedom’, in Journal of Democracy, 2, 4, 1994, p. 22,Google Scholar and Riley, Stephen P., ‘Political Adjustment or Domestic Pressure: democratic politics and political choice in Africa’, in Third World Quarterly (Abingdon), 13, 3, 1992, p. 549.Google Scholar

83 Ake, loc. cit. p. 43.

84 Dowden, Richard, ‘Uganda Slips Through the West's Democracy Net’, in The Independent, 27 March 1993.Google Scholar

85 The Economist (London), 29 05 1993, p. 68.Google Scholar

86 Ibid. 20 March 1993. It should be noted, however, that as reported in African Economic Digest (London), 14, 18, 1993, p. 8, the Norwegian Government withdrew substantial funds for the educational sector in August 1993 because the Zambian Government ‘had failed to set up a transparent accounting system’.Google Scholar

87 Quoted in West Africa, 16–22 November 1992, p. 1954.Google Scholar

88 The Economist, 14 November 1992.

89 Quoted in Africa Confidential, 34, 7, 1993.

90 The German Ambassador to Nairobi, Bernd Mutzelburg, who had earlier emerged as a strong supporter of political conditionalities, was reported in April 1993 to have warned donors about the risk of ruining the Kenyan economy if they insisted on the implementation of S.A.P. measures without providing some funds to protect vulnerable groups. Daily Nation, 18 December 1992 and 2 April 1993.Google Scholar

91 The Standard, 2 April 1993.

92 Quoted by Mutua, Makau wa, ‘Ticking Time Bomb’, in African Report, July–August 1993, p. 21.Google Scholar

93 U.S. A.I.D. director in Nairobi, Westley, John, in Daily Nation, 29 September 1992.Google Scholar

94 African Confidential, 34, 20, 1993, and Weekly Review, 8 August 1993, pp. 23–4.Google Scholar

95 Finance (Nairobi), 15 04 1993, p. 15.Google Scholar

96 National Democratic Institute, ‘Cameroon Presidential Elections, October 11, 1992. An Interim Report of the International Observer Mission’, 28 October 1992.Google Scholar

97 Huband, Mark, ‘A Flawed Victory’, in Africa Report, January–February 1993, p. 42.Google Scholar

98 Africa Confidential, 34, 5, 1993.Google Scholar

99 Huband, loc. cit. p. 43.

100 The Economist, 27 February 1993, p. 60.

101 Brittain, Victoria, ‘Weak UN Abandons Democracy in Angola’, in Guardian Weekly (London), 10 01 1993.Google Scholar

102 Hellinger, Douglas, ‘US Assistance to Africa: no room for democracy’, in TransAfrica Forum (New Brunswick), Summer 1992, p. 82.Google Scholar

103 Editorial in Le Monde (Paris), reported in Guardian Weekly, 10 01 1993.Google Scholar

104 Andreassen, Geisler, and Tostensen, op. cit. pp. 63–8.

105 Letter from Larry Garber and Richard Joseph to Andreassen, Geisler, and Tostensen, 23 March 1992.

106 Sunday Nation, 27 December 1992, p. 4.

107 Commonwealth Observer Group (Kenya), op. cit. p. 57.Google Scholar

108 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Harare, , 16–22 October 1991,Google Scholar in Southern Africa Record (Braamfontein), 63, 1992, p. 30.Google Scholar

109 ‘Fading Illusions’, in Africa Events (London), 03 1993, p. 30.Google Scholar

110 Anyang'nyong'o, Peter, ‘Political Instability and the Prospects for Democracy in Africa’, in African Development (Dakar), 13, 1, 1988.Google Scholar