Updated: March 2, 2021There are at least 16 presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections taking place in Africa in 2018. Here is what you need to know.
- Sierra Leonean general election, 2018
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 7 March 2018 to elect the President, Parliament and local councils. However, incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma was not running for another term, as he was constitutionally ineligible, having served the maximum ten years in office. No presidential candidate received the 55% of the vote required to win in the first round. As a result, a second round of voting will be held on 27 March between the top two candidates, opposition leader Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party and Samura Kamara of the ruling All People’s Congress. In the first round, the two candidates were separated by under 15,000 votes.
- Cameroonian general election, 2018
Presidential elections will be held in Cameroon in October 2018. Incumbent President, Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years will be running again for another term of seven years. The previous presidential elections on 9 October 2011 saw Mr. Biya elected for another seven-year term following a 2008 constitutional amendment that removed term limits. Going into the 2018 elections Cameroon has experienced unrest in the English-speaking portions of the country where separatists have attempted to create the state of Ambazonia. In the far north, Boko Haram has displaced hundreds of thousands and killed thousands.
- Djiboutian parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections were held in Djibouti on 23 February 2018. The election was boycotted by the main opposition parties, including some of the parties in the Union for National Salvation coalition, which had won 10 seats in the previous elections in 2013. According to government figures, the ruling Union for the Presidential Majority won 57 of 65 seats in Parliament. The opposition Union for Democracy and Justice–Djibouti Party for Development (UDJ–PDD) won seven seats in Djibouti city electoral district. The UMP ran unopposed in three electoral districts (Dikhil, Obock and Arta, 18 seats).
- Egyptian presidential election, 2018
Presidential elections will be held in Egypt between 26 and 28 March 2018, though Egyptians abroad will vote from 16 March until 18 March 2018. On 19 January, incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi formally announced he would run for a second and final term. A runoff, if necessary, will take place 19 April to 21 April outside the country, and 24 April to 26 April within the country.
- Gabonese parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections would be held in Gabon in 2018.
- Guinean parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections would be held in Guinea in 2018.
- Libyan parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections would be held in Libya in 2018.
- Malian presidential election, 2018, and Malian parliamentary election, 2018
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Mali on 29 July 2018 while parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Mali in November or December 2018. The 147 members of the National Assembly are elected from 125 constituencies using the two-round system. In constituencies where there is more than one seat, a party list system is used.
- Mauritanian parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections would be held in Maritania in 2018.
- Rwandan parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Rwanda in September 2018. The 80-seat Chamber of Deputies is elected by two methods: 53 seats are directly elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency with an electoral threshold of 5%; seats are allocated using the largest remainder method. The remaining 27 seats are indirectly elected by local and national councils, including 24 reserved for women (six from Eastern, Southern and Western provinces, 4 from Northern Province and 2 from Kigali), two for representatives of youth and one for representatives of handicapped
- Santomean parliamentary election, 2018
Santomean parliamentary elections would be held in 2018.
- South Sudanese general election, 2018
General elections were scheduled to be held in South Sudan by 9 July 2015, the first since independence. However, in light of an alleged coup d’état attempt and continuing conflict in the country this has been thrown into doubt, especially since no permanent constitution has been formulated. The South Sudan parliament voted in April 2015 to amend the country’s transitional 2011 constitution to extend the presidential and parliamentary term until 9 July 2018, with 264 members in favour and a handful opposing it
- Swazi legislative election, 2018
Swazi legislative elections would be held in 2018.
- Togolese parliamentary election, 2018
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Togo in June or July 2018. The 91 members of the National Assembly are elected by closed list proportional representation from 30 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from two to ten seats. Seats are allocated using the highest averages method.
- Tunisia municipal election 2018
Tunisian municipal elections would be held in 2018
- Zimbabwean general election, 2018
General elections are scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe in 2018 to elect the President and members of both houses of Parliament. According to the written Zimbabwean Constitution, the elections must be held before the official expiry date of the current parliamentary term due to end on the 21st of August 2018 . The likelihood of the 2018 general elections taking place were called into doubt following the 2017 Zimbabwean coup. On 22 November 2017, a ZANU-PF spokesman said that Emmerson Mnangagwa would serve out the remainder of Robert Mugabe’s term before the elections due to be held during or before September 2018. Mnagagawa confirmed that elections would be held “in five or six months” in January 2018, meaning that elections will be held in May or June 2018. On 18 January 2018, President Mnangagwa spoke to the Financial Times in an interview, in which he invited the EU, UN and the Commonwealth to send missions to Zimbabwe in order to monitor the elections.
[/read_more]
[read_more id="2" more="Read full article" less="Read less"]
