Tyson's ECOWAS Occasional Journal - Politics in West Africa

Gambia held parliamentary elections in April. The United Democratic Party (UDP) won a majority of seats (31/53) with 37% of the vote. President Barrow was a member of the UDP, but ran for president as an independent, with support from the UDP and six other parties . In the previous election, in 2012, UDP and several other parties had boycotted, so a majority of seats was held by the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), which supported former president Jammeh. In April's election the APRC won just 5 seats. Other members of the Coalition that supported Barrow include the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), which won 4 seats, and the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), which won 5 seats.

I've been neglecting the blog for almost 6 months! Time to do a little catch-up. The last time I wrote about Gambia was January 3rd. (Now former-) President Jammeh had accepted his electoral loss  to (current) President Barrow, and then changed his mind and decided he had won after all, and was defiant toward ECOWAS, saying if they tried to invade, the country would defend itself. Nonetheless, ECOWAS troops (primarily from Senegal, Gambia's only neighbor) entered Gambia on January 19.  Jammeh declared a state of emergency but didn't put up much of a fight - he "filed an application with Gambia's Supreme Court to prevent Barrow being sworn in." That didn't work too well - Barrow was first inaugurated as president in the Gambia embassy in Senegal, and then after Jammeh agreed to step down on January 21 (after stealing $11 million in the intervening two weeks), President Barrow was inaugurated in Gambia in February. Gambia was the last ECOWAS co...

Ghana's democracy is robust compared to some other ECOWAS countries, including Gambia. On the same day Ghana's president Mahama accepted defeat, the first sitting president to lose an election in Ghana, the president of Gambia decided he didn't want to accept his electoral defeat after all. Ghana has had peaceful multiparty elections for 25 years, and Decembers's election marks the third democratic alternation of power between parties, but in other ways Ghana's democracy shows weaknesses, as described in a recent Monkey Cage post from Nic Cheeseman, Gabrielle Lynch and Justin Willis. The whole thing is worth reading but here are some highlights: During the campaign, a widely shared video showed Mahama allegedly “buying votes” — handing out money to women at a market. 71 percent of respondents in that survey said they prefer democracy to any other form of government — ... But the results suggest that despite Ghana’s impressive experience of open and competit...

... especially when you're counting ballots in a country where the president doesn't want to lose. From Reuters : The head of Gambia's electoral commission has fled to Senegal due to threats to his safety after declaring that President Yahya Jammeh lost last month's election, a defeat the ruler has refused to accept.

From Reuters last week: A man purporting to be the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, denied the jihadist group has been pushed out of its stronghold in the Sambisa forest, but the army said the base had been captured. President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday said Boko Haram's last enclave in the forest, a former game reserve in northeastern Nigeria, had been captured in the "final crushing" of the group. Reuters has been unable to independently verify that the area was captured. "We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere," the man identifying himself as Shekau said in a video ... "If you indeed crushed us, how can you see me like this? How many times have you killed us in your bogus death?" ... Nigeria's military has in recent years said it has killed or wounded Shekau on multiple occasions.  Such statements have often swiftly been followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau...

From Reuters : Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh accused West African regional body ECOWAS of declaring war, after it said it was putting forces on alert in case he refused to step down at the end of his mandate this month. ...  

2016 was a big year for elections in ECOWAS countries: Benin , Cape Verde,  Gambia , Ghana , and  Niger had presidential elections. Only in Cape Verde and Niger did an incumbent win (unless you believe Jammeh in Gambia that he should have won as well).  Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, and Nigeria had parliamentary elections. Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal both had constitutional referenda.  Nigeria had gubernatorial and local elections, and Niger had local elections.  2017 has fewer elections planned for ECOWAS countries: Liberia has a presidential election in October and a constitutional referendum planned.  Gambia has a parliamentary election in April (and a disputed presidential inauguration in January) Senegal and Sierra Leone have general elections.  Guinea and Niger have local elections.