Several African presidents continued to sweep elections with more than 90 percent of the vote — results that critics, however, say expose the erosion of democratic norms and the tightening grip of authoritarian rule across the continen.
In the most recent elections, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan secured a disputed victory with over 97 percent of the vote, according to official results — a rare landslide in the country.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has consistently achieved more than 90 percent in multiple elections, including an extraordinary 99.15 percent in July 2024, 98.9 percent in 2017, 95 percent in 2003, and 93 percent in 2010.
Read: Democracy is such a relic of our colonial past; try something newAnalysts note that such results often occur in elections marked by limited opposition, boycotts or controversy.“What does it say about democracy? It simply means democratic ideals no longer matter. The democratic strides and gains we made in the immediate post-Cold War era are being reversed at very high speed,” said Dr Kizito Sabala, a political analyst and lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Diplomacy and International Studies.“The success is not about the percentage the winner gets but about how level the playing field is. Any win with 80 or 90 percent is a fraud.”Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh won re-election with 97.3 percent of the vote in 2024, even though only 215,000 Djiboutians registered to vote a total population of 990,000 people.
Beyond these overwhelming victories, recent years have seen a broader trend towards authoritarianism in Africa, with several leaders extending their terms in office — a development that undermines democracy and good governance.
It is also cited as motivation behind recent spate of coups across Africa.
In Cameroon, deadly protests followed the re-election of Cameroon’s 92-year-old president Paul Biya on October 19 this year. Opponents labelled the result fraudulent after he won 53 percent, down from the 93 percent he secured in 1997.
Term limitsBiya, the world’s longest consecutively serving elected national leader, came to power in 1982 following the resignation of Cameroon’s first president Ahmadou Ahidjo.
He has remained in office since a 2008 constitutional amendment abolished term limits. He spends much of his time in Europe, leaving governance to party officials and family members.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni is seeking re-election in January 2026, having first seized power in 1986. Constitutional amendments scrapping presidential term limits in 2005 and the age limit in 2017 have been hallmarks of his rule.
Museveni won a sixth term on 16 January 2021 with 58.6 percent of the vote, despite widespread reports of ballot box stuffing, over 400 polling stations recording 100 percent turnout, and human rights abuses. Museveni has argued that retirement or age limits make no sense if individuals in question can still deliver.
Whether he wins freely is a subject critics say is unclear.“Authoritarian leaders are ‘elected’ because they manipulate the process. Opposition leaders are never allowed to campaign freely,” said Dr Sabala argued.
Also read: It’s all (s)election; no democracyIn Tanzania’s October elections, opposition parties Chadema and ACT Wazalendo were barred from participating. Chadema leader Tundu Lissu remains in prison as his treason case drags on.
The Global State of Democracy Report 2025, released by the Swedish think tank International IDEA, reveals that democratisation in Southern Africa has stagnated.“Distrust of democratic institutions is high, which depresses electoral participation and pushes citizens into alternative forms of civic engagement such as online activism and street protest,” said Dr Seema Shah, Head of Democracy Assessment at International IDEA.“Freedoms of association, assembly and expression are constrained by repressive policing and cyberbullying. Entrenched socio-economic inequalities and lax environmental management mean many marginalised groups lack access to basic welfare and cannot effectively exercise their democratic rights.”The report adds that wars and coups are weakening democracy across the continent.
In Gabon, transitional leader Brice Oligui Nguema won the presidency in April 2025 with 90.35 percent of the vote, 19 months after leading a coup that ended more than half a century of Bongo family rule.
He justified the coup as meant to prevent rigging by Ali Bongo, who had stayed in power for 15 years after inheriting the seat from his father Omar Bongo, leader of Gabon for nearly 40 years.
Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, has repeatedly secured over 90 percent — including 94.9 percent in 2022, 93.5 percent in 2016, and 97.1 percent in 1996 and 2002. In one district in 2002, he even recorded 103 percent of the vote.“Election bodies are largely pro-incumbent, however much they claim independence. Security agencies and institutions such as the judiciary are tools of the incumbent to weaken the opposition. They remain silent when the incumbent violates rules that promote a level playing field,” said Dr Sabala.
International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy Indices show that decades of democratic improvement have given way to decline. Economic inequality remains severe, with South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Eswatini among the most unequal countries globally, according to the World Bank.“Governments are struggling to deliver basic goods and services and have made little progress in fighting corruption. Satisfaction with democratic performance has fallen sharply among citizens of many Southern African countries, particularly in those considered the sub-region’s strongest democracies,” the report notes.
Yet the report highlights hope in Africa’s youth, should they convert their protests into votes.“Young people feel particularly excluded from formal democratic institutions and are seeking alternative modes of political engagement, such as protest movements,” the IDEA report says.
Across the continent, debates challenging the legitimacy of prevailing democratic models and questioning their core tenets are intensifying. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
