2021 Elections Monitoring
2021 Elections Monitoring
Benin: Presidential Election 2021
On the 11th of April, 2021, a Presidential Election was held in Benin. Two days later, the provisional first-round results released by the national electoral commission credit the incumbent president, Patrice Talon, with 86.37% of the votes, awarding him with his second Presidential term. His two opponents, Alassane Soumanou-Paul Hounkpè, from the FCBE party, and Corentin Kohoué, running as an independent, respectively won 11.29% and 2.35% of the votes. The voter-turn out rate is currently reported to be 50.17%. Benin’s constitutional court is due to verify the final results on the 20th of April after reviewing any candidate appeals.
Côte d’Ivoire National Assembly Election 2021
Background
The Côte d’Ivoire National Assembly elections took place peacefully on March 8th 2021, with a clear absolute majority going to the already ruling party, Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace party (RHDP), the same party that the current Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara belongs to. The election followed a tumultuous presidential election five months prior, where roughly 80 were killed and an opposition boycott staged.
Central African Republic: Presidential Election 2020-2021
By Naomi Ndifon
The Central African Republic’s 2020-2021 elections were concluded on the 18th of January, 2021 with the reelection of President Faustin Archange Touadera of the United Heart Movement party. He won the election garnering 53.16% of the total votes thereby marking his second term in office. He was followed by former prime minister Anicet Georges Dologuélé, with 21.69% of the total votes. Although opposition candidates vehemently refuted Touadera’s win; attributing it to electoral fraud and low turnout of voters, the constitutional court has dismissed these claims as illegitimate. Of the 17 candidates accepted by the constitutional court of the Central African Republic for the Presidential Elections, only one was a woman: Catherine Samba-Panza, the first female head of state in CAR who had previously served from 2014-2016 as transitional President.
Djibouti: Presidential Election 2021
Djibouti’s Presidential Election were held on April 9, 2021 with the incumbent candidate Ismail Omar Guelleh securing over 97% of the votes. The other opposing candidate , Zakaria Ismail Farah, garnered 2.48% of the casted votes. The election was boycotted by the traditi onal opposition amongst other challengers who shunned the elections claiming that it would not be free and transparent. President Guellah , who has been in power since 1999, won a fifth and supposedly last five - year term since by 2026 he will be over the 75 - year age limit set by the Constitution.
Uganda: the 2021 General Election
Uganda’s general election to elect both the president and the parliament was held on the 14th of January, 2021. Two days later, the country’s Electoral Commission declared the incumbent President Yoweri Museveni the victor with 5.85 million votes (58.6%), second was Bobi Wine with 35.08%. The president’s party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), won 336 out of 529 seats in the parliament, following this, independents won 74 seats and Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) won 57.