Learning from the Americans
Africa’s biggest electoral challenge is the lack of public confidence in election processes, unlike the US and Europe, where elections are largely accepted as the final word, writes Dr Ian Clarke
Dr Ian Clarke. (File)
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OPINION
By Dr Ian Clarke
A few months ago, Donald Trump was the most powerful man in the world, but today, after the midterm elections, he has had his wings severely clipped. President Trump seemed unstoppable in terms of doing whatever he liked – starting a war, imposing sanctions, breaking up alliances, insider trading, putting gold lions in Washington, or indulging his estate agency roots by remodelling the White House.
He simply did what he felt like because he was a powerful electoral force who could make or break any politician. He had an absolute majority in the Senate and Congress, with Republican politicians so cowed by him, they voted to his orders.
Meantime, the Democrats were in a state of disarray with no clear message, no clear leader, all the while being demonised as radical leftists by the Republicans.
Trump 2 was different than Trump 1 because Trump was genuinely surprised when he was elected in 2016 and did not have a hand-picked administration of sycophants as he had in Trump 2.
That all changed in 2024 when he was a powerful electoral force, and the democrats were in disarray. Apart from the MAGA Trump base, moderate Republicans and independents voted for him because they saw him as a businessman who could fix America.
The most important publicity that Trump received was not during the election, but through The Apprentice, his reality TV series in which he played the successful mogul businessman; so why would he not also be able to fix America like any business he had run?
What most people had not grasped was that Trump was not a great businessman, having had several of his businesses go bankrupt, but he was a brilliant self-promoter who could tap into how Americans were feeling and convince them he could fix it. Underneath that image was a narcissistic egotist who did not care about anything beyond himself.
When Trump won for the second time, he was now in a very powerful position and gathered around him people who would support him in every decision he made.
He selected people for their unquestioning loyalty, how they looked (he liked blond leggy girls and men who presented well in front of the camera), but not for their experience, or knowledge of the departments they ran – men such as Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy. Since he had a compliant House of Representatives and Senate, he was able to do what he wanted without checks and balances.
He has always believed in tariffs, so he imposed tariffs and started trade wars with his neighbours, such as Canada.
He was also enthralled by strong leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom held an inordinate sway over him.
In the case of Iran (egged on by Netanyahu), he saw a chance to decapitate their leadership, and he could not resist a strike that started a war.
However, he had not thought through the long-term consequences of raising oil prices. Therefore, when the American electorate went to the polls, they were hurting from the increase in oil prices and the cost of living and voted against the Republicans, giving the House and Senate to the Democrats.
The issue was simple: the President had promised to reduce the cost of living but had instead raised it.
What changed everything was the transparent electoral process. The problem we have in Africa is that we do not have confidence in such a process.
President William Ruto was elected unexpectedly in his last election because he had worked to ensure the election could not be rigged, and most Kenyans accepted the result in large measure because it went against the candidate favoured by the incumbent.
So, while elections are taken as the final word in the US and Europe, we are far more cynical in Africa, especially when we have leaders who are elected with 97% of the vote!