Western intervention in African elections

Since the last election in which Hilary Clinton, the Democratic party candidate lost to the current President, Mr. Donald Trump, the United States has not stopped its claims that Russia tried to influence the outcome of their elections by supporting Donald Trump.

These claims are being investigated in the United States, Whatever the outcome, it will remain one of the most bizarre cases in international diplomacy and the geopolitics of the current era.

That the United States should complain about ‘interference’ in its elections is like the devil complaining that someone is sinning too much and must be stopped. It is no secret that the United States has intervened in more countries than any nation on earth. Among the 5 members of the UN Security Council, the US tops the list of military and political interventions. Its most recent cases are Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria. The US has touted the idea of violent regime change led by foreign forces, as opposed to democratic regime change by the people of a particular country.

Africa perhaps has borne the brunt of US interference in elections that any continent. Every election sees a horde of American and European ‘election observers’, this is in spite of the fact that every African country has its own election Observers drawn from civil society. The Commonwealth also sends in several hundreds of observers to each African election. Most analysists will argue that this does not constitute ‘interference’.

In 2005 in Ethiopia, the Government under Meles Zenawi took the drastic action of deporting one EU representative after she had written a book about the elections. In this same election, the British charity, Action Aid was also accused of supporting the opposition. This claim could not be verified at the time.

However, one thing that cannot be denied is that the West interferes and intervenes in the elections of most African countries. Western interference in African elections takes many forms. It can be the support (sometimes illegal) various interests in those countries give to opposition or sister parties in Africa. It can also take the form of ‘Communications Advisers’ to friendly political parties. This writer believes that these constitute a form of interference. During elections in Zimbabwe, President Mugabe bans western election observers because they have taken sides with the Opposition party and its leader Morgan Tsangarai.

In some cases, this interference is blatant. Let us take the example of Kenyan elections in 2007 and 2013, some Western countries had invested financial and moral resources towards a particular result during the elections, i.e., the West had a preferred candidate. Before the 2013 elections, western leaders tried to blackmail the people of Kenya to vote in a particular way. Hilary Clinton jetted to Nairobi to warn the Kenyan electorate that: “Choices have consequen-ces”, without a hint of shame. The Western powers also tried to use the International Criminal Court (ICC) to block the two favourite candidates, Hon William Ruto, now deputy President and HE Uhuru Kenyatta, now the President.

The results of the March 2013 elections showed that the people of Kenya had refused to be ‘blackmailed’ (in the words of His Excellency, Yoweri Musevini) and elected HE Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, Hon. William Ruto, it sent a chilling message to these Western Embassies and their Kenyan proxies.

 

 

The West was shocked. They needed fall guys and institutions; someone or some people to blame for their abject lack of understanding of the African electorate, their weak understanding of new structural changes and formations in Africa, and how the continent is changing. Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2013 victory also exposed the poor diplomatic skills based on cash handouts to the ‘friends’ of western donors in civil society in Kenya. The masses in Africa no longer do the bidding of western nations and their African proxies.

It is almost impos-sible to resist the feeling that some western nations think they have a God-given right to intervene in elections in Africa, as part of their effort to bring democracy to Africa. This is facilitated by some African elites who have fallen for a false sense of fulfilment from people who preach democracy today and practice dictatorships in the most sinister, unapologetic way, and sometimes through unspeakable atrocities against other people if only to lay their hands on their resources (Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, the DCR, are examples).  The principle of ‘we know what is good for the natives’ is very much alive.

Why does the West try to intervene in African elections? The living reality is that African resources are for grabs, and western nations now facing eye ball to eye ball with China, and may have become desperate.

The government in power usually holds the key to unlocking national assets and making these available to western nations and their economic interests. Some sections of the new emerging African middle classes will make deals with imperialists interest to deny the people their right to choose their own leaders, and this should be said time and again. However, Africa has become wiser and more resilient in this new game.

However, as elections remain the main democratic avenues for the change of guard in most African countries, the West, and perhaps China will continue to try and influence the outcomes of these elections. Should the US therefore accept that maybe the Russians are doing exactly what they have been doing in many African countries?

There is no proof that such interference works in the favour of major western powers. In fact, recent African elections shows that Africans are likely to vote according to their interests and not what some US or western agency tells them. In the era of globalization, such interference should be expected. It is up to political parties to work hard to ensure that foreign interference does not determine the outcome of national elections. African nations will need continue to show courage and resilience in the face of the new neo-colonialist onslaught during elections.

 

NPP wants us to believe they are a Gover-nment that is turning a new leaf from the old ways and can lead Ghana out of the doldrums.

Politics

Ghana to see great transformation under NPP administration

The Ashanti Regional Orga-nizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr. Daniel Agyenim Boateng has stressed the need for Ghanaians to stay focused and renew their faith in H.E Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo who is ever ready to transform the fragile economy through his visionary plans for the country.

Speaking to the your authoritative Public Agenda at the Regional Party’s headquarters in Kumasi, Mr. Boateng who described the President as a true statesman observed that the numerous promises been made by the President during his campaign trail are now on the pipeline, adding that by the end of August this year, Ghanaians would start feeling positive impact of the promises. The organizer who sounded positive about his claim,  cited the ‘One District, One Factory’ concept which is ongoing, the free SHS education, which will take off in September, eradication of some challenging taxations among others which to some large extent are steadily progressing the economy.

Agyenim Boateng used the occasion to advise Ghanaians to be patient and have confidence in Nana Addo to execute his vision which is currently transforming the country, but he attributed the downward trend of the country to bad governance and lack of leadership qualities under the past regime of President Mahama and his failed ministers.

In Nana Addo’s administration, the organizer bemoaned Ghana would be a country where people would desire to live in and therefore charged the citizenry especially faithful of NPP to continue working hard for the success of the party and Ghanaians in general. Mr. Boateng assured supporters of the NPP about his readiness to work hard as an organizer of the party to ensure that Nana Addo passes the test of time with the full mandate given to him by Ghanaians to come and revamp the nearly collapsed economy which was then under the regime of the former President John Mahama.

About the corruptions in the country, especially the one connecting with ex-President John Mahama’s brother and that of the Internal Revenue Authority, Mr. Boateng called on the government to deal with the offenders and also sack all officials in the government institutions who through their official negligence caused financial loss to the state, since in his opinion the stinking scandals are disgraceful to the state even at the global scene and could likely scares potential investors if no punishment is meted out to the culprits. He stressed that former President’s regime could be described as a “loot and share” simply because he hardly failed to discipline his ministers who were caught in the web of corruption and also failed to provide job for the youth of this country.