This has been described as 'the year of elections' and as 'the ultimate election year'. But this does not mean it will be the year of democracy. On the contrary, it may well become the year of the authoritarian.

Three developments show there is a clear and present danger to democracy in Africa as autocrats use "elections" to cling to power.

The first of these can be seen playing out in southern Africa as popular unhappiness with decades of lost growth and development rises.

Seven parties - the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), Namibia's Swapo Party, Tanzania's Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, or Revolutionary Party), the ANC in South Africa, and Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF - met under the banner of the Former Liberation Movements (FLM) organisation at Victoria Falls on 18 March 2024.

Made up of members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the FLM is a reincarnation of the Frontline States grouping which banded together to fight apartheid.

But this organisation is not about advancing the interests of the 216 million people who live within their borders. Instead, it seeks to develop strategies for liberation movements to hold on to political power - parties that have already been in uninterrupted power for a combined 324 years.

According to an ANC press statement in this regard, the FLM is a "crucial platform to advance...