Election chaos threaten African democracy, warns AU boss

By David Ochami in Algiers

Kenya’s post-election crisis was a huge challenge to African efforts to end impunity and entrench democracy.

African Union Commission (AUC) President Jean Ping said electoral chaos in Kenya, Guinea and Ivory Coast are threatening emerging democracies.

He also defended his decision to send former South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate the Ivorian chaos. Mr Ping hailed Algeria’s role in decolonisation of Africa and said the UN and other multilateral agencies should respect the AU’s role in solving conflicts in Africa.

Addressing a meeting of the AUC’s Panel of the Wise, which comprises retired African presidents in Algiers, Ping compared the Kenya crisis to the troubled transition in Guinea and spiralling post-election saga in Ivory Coast. "We had a crisis in Kenya and another one in Guinea and now we are on the eve of another one in Ivory Coast," he said yesterday.

Ping said the crises could have been averted if the AUC’s peace and security mechanisms had the means to intervene and avert what he called "devastating conflicts".

He said the panel formed in October 2007 at a special UN peace and security meeting and whose president is Algeria’s first President Ahmed Ben Bella, should be strengthened to make it efficient and capable of engaging in "preventative diplomacy" to support democracy in Africa.

He said due to financial constraints and faltering transitions it remains "an uphill task" to enforce constitutional rule in Africa but warned the AUC will not tolerate policies and practices that violate democracy.

Sudan referendum

He said they would address the challenges "to save democracy within the context of safeguarding the will of the people."

The meeting in the Algerian capital is convened to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1960 UN resolution 1514, calling for decolonisation of the then remaining colonies.

It is expected to discuss the upcoming separation referendum in South Sudan, the Ivorian crisis and the Western Sahara territory, occupied by Morocco since the departure of Spanish colonialists in 1975 among other issues.

Ping said the continent is "heading to a momentum for human rights" that will not tolerate a return to undemocratic means to retain or acquire power. Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo are attending.