From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: AFRICA: ARE THE 'DEMOCRACY POLICE'
Date: 23 Jan 93 14:30:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476701020:000:6067
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jan 23 06:30:00 1993


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: AFRICA: ARE THE 'DEMOCRACY POLICE' 

/* Written 12:06 am  Jan 23, 1993 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1993, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: AFRICA: ARE THE 'DEMOCRACY POLICE' FAILING? /SERIES/


harare, jan 20 (ips/obinna anyadike) -- the role of
international election observers has come in for criticism
across the continent after three controversial elections in as
many months.

in cameroon, after a bitter struggle to force president paul
biya to accept the inevitability of multiparty reforms,
elections were held in october.

blatantly rigged, according to the u.s.-based national
democratic institute (ndi) observation team -- one of the few
monitor bodies there -- biya nevertheless declared he had won.
with french official support, he is facing few international
sanctions to force him to stand down.

ghana's november poll resulted in a resounding victory for
president jerry rawlings. the opposition, prompted by the scale
of their loss, cried foul but have not been able to prove their
allegations. the commonwealth observer team said the election
was ''basically free and fair''.

in uganda in 1980 and liberia in 1985, the international
community woefully failed to condemn the generally-accepted
fraudulence of those polls. the results of the elections
contributed to both countries slide into brutal civil wars.

kenya in december was the crucial test for the accountability
of the new world order in africa. in the run-up to the dec. 29
poll, there were strong indications that some observers were
preparing to pull out in protest over a deeply flawed electoral
process.

but they stayed and validated the result. commonwealth
secretary-general emeka anyaokou said the commonwealth report
concluded ''the elections had a number of serious imperfections,
but that despite these serious imperfections, the group
considered that the result broadly reflected the will of the
kenyan people''.

opposition democratic party leader, mwai kibaki shot back
that the observers had witnessed irregularities but chose to
ignore them: ''but we kenyans cannot ignore that reality for we
are going to live with that''.

larry garber of the ndi told ips in a telephone interview:
''the kenya election was clearly unfair. the comonwealth was
active in kenya six months before the election, but i don't
think they were as effective as possible in pushing their
concerns. (more/ips)


africa: are the (2)

''it is not only a presence that is key but the willingness
to issue forthright statements. it really comes down to whether
monitoring teams are prepared, when push comes to shove, to say
before the election they are not prepared to validate it'',
garber, who led the ndi mission to zambia in 1991, said.

he noted that there is intense pressure on observers over the
consequences of following through their concerns with the
fairness of the poll and declaring an election fraudulent. he
considered kenya, an important regional power, a failure of
resolve.

in london, commonwealth spokesperson patsy roberts told ips:
''in most election irregularities we have to take a judgement
whether they overwhelm the process. the end process is that
people come out and vote...the lead up to election day is
important but not over-riding''.

garber disagrees. ''a fair election from my perspective has
nothing to do with election day''. he prefers a holistic
approach where observers arrive early, ''set markers'' and
generally have a more hands-on-approach through organising local
monitoring groups.

a poll can be easily seen to be fraudulent when police are on
the streets beating people over the heads as they cast their
votes or government officials are caught red-handed stuffing
ballot boxes.

but there are more subtle ways to rig an election. the most
obvious are where the count cannot be verified, or the
opposition is prevented from contesting effectively by local
officials.

this ''winning by subtraction'' extends to the buying of
votes and candidates, and tampering with the voters register.
difficult to quantify its effect on the result, it puts
observers in a dilemna, particulary if the opposition itself is
divided.

incumbency carries overwhelming advantage, not least the
resources of the state. in ghana and kenya, the government also
ran an intelligent campaign.

the opposition were forced to accept the ground rules as laid
down and without any channels of dialogue. they did so with
their eyes wide-open still believing they could win. but once
locked into the process, initiative is surrendered and under
pressure from supporters and donors alike they have few options.
(more/ips)


africa: are the (3)

against such odds, the kenya example has proved the dangers
of a split opposition. the results demonstrate that a united
front would have beaten president daniel arap moi, regardless of
the fairness of the poll.

that option however flies-in-the-face of the concept of
plural politics if a decreed single-party state is merely
replaced by an elected one. when democracy is solely represented
by the ballot box, then the multiparty wave in africa will have
achieved little.

good governance and democratisation have become the
watchwords of the donor community. but when regimes are dragged
to the hustings, the west's ''democracy police'' in the form of
monitors have to be up to the job.

failure leaves the opposition open to the retribution of the
state, and the very instability the observers fence-sitting may
have been engineered to prevent.

this year, elections are due in at least seven african
countries, all of which will be bitterly contested.

according to garber, ''there were important differences in
how the cameroon, ghana and kenya elections were evaluated.
ghana was the least problem on the scale, and cameroon the most
problematic. we may need to reconsider some of the issues (in
electoral observation). (end/ips/oa/apc/93)
Xref: sparky soc.rights.human:4973 soc.culture.caribbean:2089