In southern Africa, where democracy remains relatively stable, the 2024 elections have seen long-ruling liberation parties fighting for survival.
Across Africa, power struggles involving military governments, coup attempts and armed conflicts are commonplace, but the southern region has been more stable overall and elections in some countries have brought joy and hope for a better future.
This is not the case for some parties in power for decades. Goodwill to free their country from colonial rule seems to be giving way to frustration over economic problems and limited opportunities for the region’s youth.
With voters becoming younger and lacking personal memories of colonialism, which ended before they were born, parties from the era of the liberation struggle in southern Africa have lost power or received a wake-up call in 2024.
For many young voters, government performance matters more than the historical credentials from the days of the liberation struggle that these parties relied on to stay in power for decades, resulting in “the shifting of tectonic plates.” policies we’re seeing,” said Nic Cheeseman, a political scientist and professor at the University of Birmingham in England.
“Generational change is an important factor in the shifting political tectonic plates that we are witnessing. People want work and dignity – you can’t eat souvenirs,” said Cheeseman, who studies African politics.
Botswana, a small nation of about 2.5 million people with a history of democratic stability, has been hardest hit, as the economy has suffered from a global slowdown in demand for mined diamonds and the rate of youth unemployment has increased.
Opposition supporters, dressed in blue and white, took to the streets to celebrate the victory, while then-President Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat even before the end of the vote count. the result of an election organized at the end of October. The landslide opposition victory marked the end of the 58 years in power of the Botswana Democratic Party, which had governed the country since independence from the United Kingdom in 1966.
Months earlier, South African voters had turned against the African National Congress, the party led by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela in the 1990s. In May, the ANC lost its majority, which forced him to share power with the opposition.
The result put South Africa on an uncharted political path for the first time since the end of apartheid thirty years ago. The ANC has been gradually losing votes since the 2009 national elections, also ceding political control of major cities due to widespread discontent over corruption, failures in service delivery and economic hardship. However, his drop from 57.5% of the vote to 40% in May was his biggest loss.
In Namibia, the candidate of the long-ruling South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO), Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, made history by becoming the country’s first female president.
However, SWAPO won 51 seats in the parliamentary elections, narrowly surpassing the 49 it needed to retain its majority and narrowly avoiding becoming another rejected liberation struggle party in southern Africa this year. It was SWAPO’s worst parliamentary result since Namibia gained independence from South Africa’s apartheid government in 1990, signaling a potential shift in the country’s political landscape.
Many liberation governments have reason to be concerned although the consistency of democratic processes can be lauded, said Nicole Beardsworth, a politics researcher and professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
“What we are seeing in southern Africa is relative stability in terms of democratic norms, where citizens seem to believe that their vote counts. “So this is a source of concern for the parties in power,” Beardsworth said.
In Mozambique, the results that extended the ruling Frelimo party’s half-century in power after October elections sparked protests that led to the deaths of at least 100 people, according to Amnesty International.
Exiled opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, capitalizing on growing youth discontent in the country of 34 million, challenged the election result in court. He also continued to call for protests that ranged from street marches to road and border blockades and pot-banging.
A similar situation occurred in January in Comoros, an island state in the Indian Ocean, where news of incumbent President Azali Assoumani’s victory for a fourth term sparked violent unrest that left one person dead and dozens more wounded.
Cheeseman, the political researcher, said the protests, including in countries where democracy is hampered, reflect “growing signs — from protests to online dissent — that public opinion is already changing.”
“Even citizens who have lost faith in democracy want a responsive and accountable government, and for their voices to be heard,” he said.
Elections swept away ruling parties in several countries in the region and across the economy.
Senegal is a troubled continent, with more than 1.4 billion people and the youngest population in the world.
The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, one of Africa’s most stable democracies, saw an opposition coalition seize all the contested parliamentary seats, ousting the government led by Pravind Jugnauth, who was replaced by former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam.
In West Africa, Senegal in March elected Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, until then little known, who became the continent’s youngest leader.
Faye beat rivals, including a former prime minister backed by incumbent President Macky Sall, just weeks after being released from prison to run in the election. And hopes for change continue to rise in a country where more than 60% of the population is under 25 and 90% works in the informal sector, after Faye’s PASTEF party won 130 of 165 seats.
Former President John Dramani Mahama returned to power in Ghana as voters expressed anger at the policies of outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo in early December. Mahama’s 65-year-old National Democratic Congress also won a majority in parliament.
