Electoral Management Bodies and the Electoral System in Sub-Saharan Africa (2010 – 2024)

Abstract:
 Elections in Africa represent a recognition of democracy and the right of its peoples to choose their leaders, but the return of military coups and the rise of autocratic tendencies in their political systems affect the independence of their electoral bodies concerned with organizing and managing elections, which often leads either to violence, or to questioning their integrity and rejecting their results. Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to all other regions of the world, is the region with the lowest level of electoral integrity, so the independence and competence of electoral management bodies is a crucial factor in ensuring the transparency and integrity of electoral processes. The African democratic experience, ascribed to Electoral Systems & Electoral Management Bodies, is rich and diverse in its constitutional texts and political and institutional measures, in which political consensus represents the shortest route to adopting a political system that respects rights, promotes participation, and provides an independent mechanism for managing elections as the only guarantee for the peaceful transfer of power.