Competitive Elections: Successes and Failures

A panoramic observation of elections in French-speaking black Africa reveals a frightful drift which has undeniably erased the progress of the new constitutional order initiated in the 1990s. One can only hope that this trend corresponds to the electoral choice of one particular political clan and that it will not last as long as the Roman Empire! As a consequence, it is necessary to try to lift off the curse that seems to have been attached to elections and according to which they are either manipulated by those who pretend to support them or supported by those who seem to betray them (one often hears that mass slaughters or assassinations reinforce the value of elections in French-speaking black Africa, among other things). This might be the only possibility for the political or democratic transition initiated in the 1990s to reach completion and to make sure that the much expected democracy in black French-speaking Africa becomes a reality instead of remaining a pipe-dream. Adapted from the source document.