Africa: Electoral Landscapes

Ghana, Gambia, and Gabon are all small African countries with names beginning with the letter "G," which held presidential elections in 2016. But neither the electoral landscapes nor the electoral outcomes can fruitfully be analyzed without giving greater weight to the contrasts than to the similarities. The same applies to the even wider set of 14 African countries with presidential elections last year, or the 8 so far scheduled to hold elections in 2017.

As this Bulletin is published in mid-January, the most pressing uncertainty about Africa's elections is for Gambia, where outgoing President Yahya Jammeh reversed his decision to accept his election defeat in December (see http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/gamb1612.php), meeting with widespread condemnation both internationally and domestically. And for the latest news as of this morning, see http://tinyurl.com/h2p3vzn and follow this Gambian news site (http://jollofnews.com).

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