I think we can all agree that 2024 has been one big election festival.
By the time the year comes to a close, in a little less than two months, close to four billion people, or about half the world’s population, would have partaken in this periodic ritual across the world.
In Europe, there was a key election in Russia between March 15 and 17, in which Vladimir Putin overwhelmingly won another six-year term.
His crushing victory saw him win 87,8 percent of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, signalling a ringing endorsement, especially at a time when the country finds itself locked in an existential conflict with the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which is using Ukraine as a proxy and battering ram against a formidable Moscow.
In Asia, perhaps the biggest election was in India — the world’s most populous nation, which is also considered the world’s biggest democracy — from April 19 to June 1, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of an outright majority in parliament but ultimately won the mandate to govern through stitching up a coalition with its alliance partner, the National Democratic Alliance.
This meant Narendra Modi became the second leader in Indian history to win three consecutive terms. The electorate in Africa was equally exercised, with the March 24 polls in Senegal ushering in a fresh-faced Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who garnered 54,28 percent of votes in the first round.
His main rival, Amadou Ba, who was the candidate for the governing coalition, only managed 35,79 percent. However, elections in the Central African country of Rwanda on July 15 can be better described as more of a brutal and chastising ass-whopping (excuse Bishop Lazi’s language) for the opposition than a plebiscite. Kikikiki.
For the umpteenth time, Paul Kagame managed to outdo himself.
This time, his incredible tally accounted for 99 percent of the vote, which eclipsed the 93 percent and 95 percent he got in 2010 and 2003, respectively. The victory was made all the more thunderous and remarkable because it was delivered by 98 percent of the registered voters.The two candidates who were brave — nay, foolish — enough to stand against Kagame (Frank Habineza and Philippe Mpayimana) shared between them less than 1 percent of the vote. Kikikiki.
Winds of change
Closer to home, we had general elections in the neighbourhood — South Africa, Mozambique and recently Botswana.
Across the Limpopo, the ANC slackened its grip on power in the May 29 polls, as it fell short of the majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.
After slumping to 40,18 percent, Africa’s oldest liberation movement had to conveniently forge an alliance with its nemesis, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which had the second-highest number of votes (21,81 percent), a development that was previously considered both unconscionable and untenable.
The ANC and DA are like water and oil: They could not, cannot and will not mix.
What was notable, however, was the emergence of a new political outfit, uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK), led by former president Jacob Zuma. It became the third-biggest party in South Africa five months after its formation.
No doubt, its involvement caused a seismic shift in the balance of power, as it wrested voters from the ANC in the influential KwaZulu-Natal, the province with the second-largest number of voters.
Clearly, had it not been for the MK party, itself a manifestation of the internal contradictions within the ANC, the ruling party’s governing majority would not have been upended. It, however, was not the case in Mozambique, where Frelimo, under the towering Daniel Chapo, extended its 49-year grip on power after the October 9 vote.
It gained 71 percent of the vote, led by a candidate who has the distinction of becoming the first president born after the country’s independence in 1975.
His closest rival, Venâncio Mondlane, who we were told identifies with the youth, only polled 20 percent.
The only blemish is the post-election disturbances instigated by an opposition that was already crying foul long before the first vote had been cast.
You see, it is incredibly difficult, almost impossible, to defeat a liberation movement, particularly one that had to bear arms of war to overthrow colonialism.
Such movements are often ideologically grounded, very disciplined and inextricably linked and embedded in communities and with the people.
But there was a political earthquake in neighbouring Botswana, where the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) lost its 58-year hold on power to Duma Boko’s Umbrella for Democratic Change.
So disappointing was BDP’s performance that it trailed all other parties that participated in the elections.
Something is in the water
Folks, what we can read from elections on the continent is the fact that something is definitely in the water.
In the wake of the active and targeted campaign by the Oppenheimers-linked Brenthurst Foundation to dislodge liberation movements, concerns about economic conditions, livelihoods and standards of living of the ordinary wananchi, particularly the youths, have become a chink in the armour that is potentially fatal for sitting governments, regardless of their credentials.
A key factor in politics on the continent is its youth population.
Africa has the youngest population in the world, with over 60 percent under 25.
By 2030, the number of youths is projected to grow to 42 percent.
But this burgeoning population is largely and increasingly disillusioned by limited prospects in economies that remain resource dependent.
With nothing to do and nothing to lose, this totemless political demographic has become a willing agent of change, driven by the creed that any change is better than current circumstances.
Of course, we recently learnt valuable lessons from a new creature called Generation Z, which nearly brought Kenya to a standstill by waging militant demonstrations against the 2024 Finance Bill, which proposed high tax levies on everyday items like bread, fuel and airtime.
Gen Z also exhibited efficient mobilisation power through wielding the witchcraft of technology by leveraging social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
Faced with formidable and dogged resistance from this new political constituency, the Kenyan government had no option but to buckle and withdraw the Finance Bill, as well as reconstitute its Cabinet. All this was fundamentally important insofar as it announced the arrival of Gen Z, whose political creed is centred on bread-and-butter issues, as impatient stakeholders and stockholders in the continent’s political discourse.
All this gives credence to words of eminent revolutionary Amilcar Cabral, who most famously said: “Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.”
Even God does not promise us poverty but abundance.
In Exodus 3:7-8, the Lord told Moses: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”
Forget the harebrained analyses being peddled on social media, the Botswana Democratic Party lost the elections because of a combination of internal contradictions and, most importantly, deteriorating economic conditions that created a perfect storm for the governing party.
It is the economy, stupid!
Overreliance on diamonds proved fatal.
For instance, by half year, sales of rough diamonds at Debswana, the company that Botswana’s government jointly owns with De Beers Group, had dropped by half, making it difficult to fund critical social services.
This obviously riled and energised the country’s youth population — which constitutes around 53 percent of the total population, with 20 percent aged between 15 and 24 years — to vote for change.
People first
In Zimbabwe, the secret of the ruling party, ZANU PF, especially President ED, has been to put people at the centre of both decision-making and policies.
From day one, ED’s obsession has been to drive inclusive national development that lifts people out of poverty into prosperity.
Quite tellingly, the economy has been growing at a remarkable pace despite global economic headwinds — be they cyclones, the Covid-19 pandemic and droughts.
The impressive recovery of the agriculture sector, which is the country’s biggest employer, has empowered thousands of households.
For instance, 80 percent of the people who are driving the record growth witnessed in the money-spinning tobacco sub-sector are beneficiaries of the Land Reform Programme.
It is, therefore, not surprising that, guided by this wisdom, most of the resolutions made at the ruling party’s 21st National People’s Conference in Bulawayo focus on pro-people policies designed to uplift the standard of living of Zimbabweans.
This might be through low-cost housing, making ambulances and medicine readily available in local health institutions, cushioning pensioners, taking care of civil servants, stabilising the local currency, empowering the youth or ensuring satisfactory service delivery.
And all this makes ZANU PF a different political animal.
But we should not waver.
The new politically totemless group owes allegiance to no one but he who offers the promise of a better life.
The world, Africa included, is changing, and we must change with it.
Bishop out!
