By Edward Qorro, The Political Platform Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Some political milestones, both positive and negative in nature, only happen in Africa and are tailor-made for the continent. Thanks Mary and Louis Leakey for discovering fossils of the earliest human being, Zinjanthropus, at Olduvai Gorge in 1959.

Even as Africa still boasts the Leakeys breakthrough, another new political discovery also tailor-made for the continent is in the offing. This is none other than Africa’s own political leaders’ invention of a democracy formula that allows for sharing of powers among themselves.

Dubbed ‘coalition government’ or ‘government of national unity’, the formula, according to dictionary.com, is a governing body formed by multiple parties, which must compromise on principle.

This formula has elsewhere been applicable to countries whose parties do not achieve majority seats in parliaments.
Coalitions have also been created after national crises to give governments a high degree of perceived political legitimacy.

Save for Africa, nowhere else has a coalition government been crafted following protests over massive rigging of presidential election results.

It all started with Kenya after the 2007 disputed presidential election whereby preliminary results showed the then self-proclaimed ‘people’s president’ Raila Odinga from ODM to have a substantial lead in his strongholds. But as the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) continued to count the votes, his rival Mwai Kibaki from PNU closed the gap and overtook Raila by a substantial margin with votes also from his stronghold.

The controversial presidential election results triggered mass protests and humiliated ECK allegedly for complicity, compelling Raila to call for votes recount. The mass protests, which escalated to ethnic violence, saw property looted, 1,000 lives lost and over 600,000 displaced. Kenya was, at this juncture, in dire need of a power-sharing deal to quell the ethnic tensions and heal the East African economic powerhouse. The then erstwhile rivals had on February 28, 2008, signed an agreement on the formation of a coalition government with a Prime Minister’s post tailor-made for Raila. The rest remained history since.

Barely a month, the continent witnessed another political standoff. Election results required a runoff between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader with the MDC challenging them, claiming widespread election fraud by Mugabe Administration.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) held the presidential run-off despite Tsvangirai pulling, enabling President Mugabe to get a landslide victory. Tsvangirai protested the results, claiming that Mugabe could not have remained president without a parliamentary majority. 

Even though the standoff was not mired in bloodshed as was the case with Kenya, Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal that saw Mugabe retain control over the army and his presidency and Tsangirai becoming Prime Minister after protracted negotiations brokered by South Africa and Mozambican leaders.

After so many years of political tensions pitting the ruling CCM and Civic United Front (CUF), Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, had to put in place the Government of National Unity (GNU) after the 2010 General Election.

Pundits argue that GNU was the best option, or else the isles could have witnessed massive bloodshed as a result of an endless turmoil that used to brew in the otherwise spice island of Africa.

Cote d’Ivoire was just about to embrace the newly discovered democracy formula on the continent before the international community led by France had successfully intervened. Had several peace deal attempts brokered by West African states to that effect not failed, Cote d’Ivoire would be the fourth country to be governed by a coalition government now.

But as I pen this Africa’s latest political invention, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seems eying the formula. DRC had in November held its presidential election with two presidential candidates declaring themselves victors.

Official election results though assured President Joseph Kabila of five more years in office, sparked violent protests in the capital with the international monitors criticising them, saying they were marred by massive fraud.

The incumbent President Kabila was declared the winner of the November 28 election after garnering almost 49 per cent of the vote ahead of Tshisekedi, who got just over 32 per cent.

Kabila himself admitted that there were some flaws, but he vehemently rejected claims that the poll results lacked credibility.

His main rival, veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, proclaimed himself president last month and went ahead with swearing in himself just days after Kabila had officially taken the oath of office.

The war-torn and mineral-rich country is now awash with fear of the election dispute triggering widespread violence.
Will DRC follow the footsteps of Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zanzibar by embracing what is widely seen as a lasting solution for Africa’s political nightmares? It remains to be seen.

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