The term election originated from Catholic Church where bishops were elected but would not

take office until ordinate, this term entered politics with the practice of the elective monarchy .

Election has been defined by different Scholars; According to Rogers Gibbons’ a professor of
political science at university of Calgary, he defined election as, “The formal process of selecting a
person for public office or accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting
(https://www.britanica.com/topic/election-science.2007).Also according to oxford dictionary defines election as,
“The formal and organized choice by vote of a person for a political office or other
position.”(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/election).

Generally from the scholars above election can be defined as a political system of a government
where by the people of the country vote to elect or to choose their representatives. There are
two major forms of election which are General election and Parliamentary election, the general
election involves choosing or voting to all or most members of a given political body, it includes
presidential and MPs election. While the parliamentary election is held so as to fill the
parliamental vacant when either the representative dies or resign.

The election can be Free, Fair and Credible or election can be Unfair, For instance the election
that are held periodically in many African state like Rwanda and Zimbabwe is unfair due to the
following evidences;

Unequal participation of political parties, most of election held in many African states does not
provides equal chances for all political parties contesting in an election especially most of the
opposition political parties are treated badly before and during the election thus this incidences
leads to unfair election and it result into the formation of un acceptable government.
(Nambiema I,2012: Counting votes and bodies; Election related conflicts in Africa).

Weak election institutions, the election institutions are the one that are responsible for
preparing, supervising and officializing election, therefore in most African states there is no
strong election institutions as a result create unfaithful atmosphere to the contestant of all
political parties especially opposition parties, therefore this outlook leads to unfair
election.(Nyong’o P,2013).

Absence of voters’ rights, in most African state the voter have no freedom to choose or to vote
for the leader of their choices, since some of them are forced by a leading political parties to
refrain from voting for the oppositional political parties, this is done through threat and some
oppressions done by the security forces before and during the election.(Guy S, 2006: Free and
fair election in Africa)

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Absence of free and fair election campaign, the election held in most African state is associated
with unfair election campaigns since some political parties especially that of oppositions are not
given enough chances to realize their policies to the citizen during the campaign therefore this
incidence indicates the existence of unfair election in Africa.(Staffan I, 2006: Democracy and
election in Africa)

It is true that, though election are held periodically in many African states, they rarely create
political space for the popular will of the people to determine the action of the state in bringing
about development, this is due to the following reasons;

The emergence of dictatorship kind of leadership, in African countries the rise of non-democratic
leadership in some African countries resulted from unfair election create a treasure of fearfulness
among people to give out their opinions, to criticize and to discuss all matters relating to the
development of their country, therefore the emergence of dictatorship gives a limited spaces for the
people to determine the actions done by their state in bringing development.(Nyong’o P, 2013:
Democratic election in Africa)

Limited mass participation in different economic affairs, most of the African states enhances limited or
no at all citizen participation in discussing and giving out opinions about all of matters concerning with
development of their states, it is believed that only the government is perfect to make the follow-up of
the development, for instance now a days some of African countries people are banned tries attempting
evaluation of development of their states, therefore this incidence creates the little political space to the
people in determining the actions done by their states in bringing about development.(Holland J and
James B, 1998: Whose voice? Participatory research and policy change)

Limited transparence of African countries, most of African governments are note transparency to
their people, they usually practicing different economic and development issues in an
independently manner without involving people, therefore this situation made people to lack
much information that are related to the development of their state ever since there is as like
as segregation between the government and the citizens, thus by doing so this result into
creation of limited political space by the government to people to determine the action done by
their state in bringing about development.(Nambiema I, 2012: Counting votes and
bodies;Election related conflicts in Africa)

Absence of freedom to people, in most African countries people do not have enough freedom
to realize their views concerning with development of their state ever since their freedom is
being hacked or exploited by the government through threats to those people who tries to
attempt the evaluations of development of their states, therefore this incidence creates a little
political space to the people to determine actions done by their state in bringing
development.(Guy S, 2006: Free and fair election)

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 Therefore, the African countries will succeeds to gives political space to their people to
determine the action done by the state in relation to the development by initiating and
following the compulsory entities such as; Adopting the free, fair and credible election so as to
formulate the acceptable government that will work for the benefit of the majority, Enhancing
democratic leadership so that the citizen could be given the equality and freedom to express
their views and opinions concerning development of their state, Also the African government
should be transparent and accountable so that can create the political space to people in
determining the action done by their state in bringing about development.

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 References

Nambiema I, 2012: Counting votes and bodies;election-related conflicts in Africa.

Staffan I, 2006:Democracy and election in Africa.

Guy S, 2006: Free and Fair election .

Nyong’o 2013: Democratic election in Africa .

Holland J and James B 1998: Whose voice? Participatory research and policy
change.

https://www.britanica.com/topic/election-political-science.

Retrieved On 16 Dec 2017

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/election.

Retrieved On 16Dec 2017