Does Africa have a separate democratic culture? That is what people ask. It is not without any reasons, if poll outcomes are any indication. It is not about how many candidates won or lost. It is more to do with the losing candidates: a half dozen presidential / prime ministerial candidates rejected poll outcomes, lock, stock and barrel.
West African country – Guinea-Bissau-is the latest to join the ranks. An opposition presidential candidate defeated the ruling party’s aspirant in a poll run-off. All that did not go well with the ruling party. The run-off between two former prime ministers has resulted in Umaro Sissoco Embalo, proclaimed the winner with 53.55% of the votes cast.
The losing candidate Domingos Simões Pereira, termed the victory of his opponent as an electoral fraud and proclaimed that he would approach the supreme court of the country to set right the wrong done. Simões Pereira came second with 46.45%, 7 points less than Embalo- the winner. The claims of the losing candidate are not without any reasons. In the first round of voting in November 2019, he had secured 40.13% of the votes far ahead of Umaro Sissoco, with 27.65%.
There are other countries, which also experienced the same set of poll skirmish after elections. They are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria and Mozambique. Senegal could have been in the list. The losing candidate leveled the charge of poll rigging but did not approach the supreme court of the country. Yet, Kenya is the only country, whose top court annulled an election in 2017. Does it augur well for African democracy?
