IN the run-up to a referendum in South Sudan which is very likely to create Africa's 54th state, our sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit, has published a report examining the trend towards democratisation on the continent since 2000—an apt subject for review, with a slew of elections due over the next couple of years, and with current events in Côte d'Ivoire demonstrating how far some countries have to go before the wheels of the polling process turn smoothly. As the report's introduction puts it:
Every year the electoral calendar in Sub-Saharan Africa becomes more crowded, and every year most posts, from the presidency to seats in the National Assembly and town mayorships, are competed for rather than seized or bestowed. The number of elections held annually in recent years has increased; since 2000 between 15 and 20 elections have been held each year. African democracy appears to have flourished and the holding of elections has become commonplace, but not all ballots pass the test of being "free and fair" and many have been charades held by regimes clinging on to power. Similarly, coups d'état have become more infrequent, although conflict, failed governments and human-rights abuses remain widespread. For every two steps forward over the past 20 years there has been at least one step back, but the overall trend appears to be in the right direction.
Click here to read the full report.
