Democratic Improvements in Africa
In the past decade or so, Africa has seen a wave of constitutional democracies descend on the continent. While North America and Europe both became less peaceful than they used to be, Africa saw a slight improvement in peacefulness. In this year’s Global Peace Index (GPI) report, The Gambia, Liberia, Burundi, and Senegal were four of the five countries that had the greatest GPI score improvements in the world. By contrast, DRC and Togo were two of the five countries that had the greatest deteriorations. Besides these deteriorations, however, some democratic features such as the respect of presidential term limits and deference for human rights have been slowly evolving in the right direction throughout the continent.
The largest improvement occurred in The Gambia where decreases in political instability and perceptions of criminality made it improve 35 places in the GPI rankings, moving up to 76th. Generally, The Gambia has been a relatively stable country—especially for this region of the world. But President Jammeh ruled the country with an iron fist from 1994 to 2016, making it less democratic and more akin to a dictatorship. A couple years ago, he was defeated in a shock election and refused to accept the results, which plunged the country into a constitutional crisis. ECOWAS mobilized troops with a mandate to enter the country and forcefully remove him from office. Jammeh eventually stepped down, and Barrow was sworn in as President in January 2017.
Since then, Barrow has promised a series of constitutional amendments including electoral reforms and the introduction of presidential term limits. While the current Gambian constitution is premised on the principles of separation of powers, rule of law, and respect for fundamental rights, Jammeh’s disregard for the law has largely impeded the proper implementation of the constitution. In 2017, the President and the National Assembly enacted the Constitutional Review Commission Bill, which provided for the establishment of a constitutional commission to draft and guide the process of promulgating a new constitution. In June 2018, eleven members of the Constitutional Review Commission were sworn-in with the goal of drafting a “people’s constitution” for The Gambia.
As such, for the past couple weeks, my work at International IDEA has been mainly focused on researching presidential term limits and eligibility requirements in African constitutions. While term limits don’t really vary across the continent—most countries have presidential mandates limited to two five-year terms—African countries have very different eligibility requirements for presidents and legislators alike. For example, Algeria, Mauritania, and Tunisia require that their presidents be of Muslim faith in order to be eligible. By contrast, Equatorial Guinea forbids ministers of any faith to become legislators. Other countries like Egypt and Rwanda require legislators to hold a university degree. However, most countries agree that presidents must be citizens by birth and at least 35 when accessing the highest function of government.
Therefore, just like other countries going through transitional phases, The Gambia will soon have to decide whether or not to implement term limits and choose between eligibility requirements, if any. While there are valid arguments against term limits, constraints on executive powers seem essential for countries seeking stability, even though they are sometimes ineffective—especially in Africa, which is home to some of the longest-serving presidents in the world. Eligibility requirements like minimum age and citizenship also seem warranted for stability purposes. Only time will tell what requirements the Gambian Constitutional Review Commission will choose to implement as the commission has eighteen months to make these decisions.