Following substantial violence surrounding the recent elections in Guinea, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, concern is being expressed about the preparations for upcoming electoral rounds in several other West African countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“It is imperative that effective measures be put in place to ensure violence-free elections,” said Dr Jibrin Ibrahim of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja, Nigeria. “Lessons learnt from other countries where electoral violence or population displacement was reported, or where the same was successfully averted, should be closely studied and preventive measures taken.”
Elections in Nigeria in April 2011 were followed by violence that forced about 40,000 people out of their homes across the country, especially in the northern states of Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi. In Ivory Coast, the violence following the 2010 general elections is reported to have led to the displacement of about 500,000 people, some of whom sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
In the coming months, presidential elections are due to be held in Liberia and The Gambia, and preparations for legislative elections in Guinea are also getting under way. Over the course of 2012, further elections are scheduled in Ghana, Mali, The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Senegal.
The CDD is calling on governments to set up investigations into the root causes of electoral violence with the view to conducting future elections with minimal conflict and without population displacements. It also suggests that the UNHCR, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) work closely with national governments, civil society, human right advocates, the media and other stakeholders to develop strategies for the ratification, domestication and popularisation of relevant international treaties, especially the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
The CDD also called for widespread debate on elections, electoral justice, citizenship and constitutional reforms in West Africa, so as to bring about a deepening of democracy and the creation of “a West Africa that is secured, peaceful, economically prosperous and democratically stable, and also without refugees and internally displaced persons”.
