Free and Fair? : Observation of Selected African Elections

Chan, Stephen

Abstract

The first large-scale election observation was of Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence elections. Since then, election observation has become a regular worldwide feature and many international organisations, official agencies, and non-governmental organisations field observation teams. They all use similar methodologies, largely derived from the original 1980 model. A third of a century later, it may be time to consider whether the use of electoral observation has outlived its usefulness – or is itself being used to mask forms of electoral cheating. This paper considers five 21st century African elections – in Kenya (2007), Zimbabwe (2008, 2013 and 2018) and Zambia (2016), through the reflections of a pioneer of the 1980s observation prototype.

Citation

Chan, S. (2019). Free and Fair? : Observation of Selected African Elections. Journal of African elections, 18(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.20940/JAE/2019/v18i1a1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 1, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 1, 2019
• Journal: Journal of African Elections
• Print ISSN: 1609-4700
• Electronic ISSN: 2415-5837
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-22
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.20940/JAE/2019/v18i1a1
• Publisher URL: https://www.eisa.org.za/pdf/JAE18.1Chan.pdf