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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Aug 18 2010 - 08:39:17 EDT
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/100817/rwanda-democracy
Opinion: Rwanda needs stronger democracy
Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan also require more freedoms.
By Tristan McConnell - GlobalPost
Published: August 18, 2010 06:55 ET in Africa
NAIROBI, Kenya — President Paul Kagame’s victory this week was the latest in
a series of elections in this part of the world that have little to do with
democracy.
National elections in Rwanda, Ethiopia and Sudan were all foregone
conclusions where ordinary voters had very little choice over who would rule
them.
In Rwanda, two opposition parties were blocked from running their candidates
while the three opponents that Kagame faced were part of his ruling
coalition. Not much choice there: Kagame took 93 percent of the vote.
Earlier this year, in Ethiopia, the various opposition parties had been so
bludgeoned into submission (and riven with internal divisions) that they
stood no chance at all against Meles Zanawi’s monolithic party machinery.
Meles’ party took more than 99 percent of the seats.
And in Sudan, the northern and southern ruling parties swept the boards in
their respective regions through a combination of rigging, intimidation,
opposition boycotts and financial muscle. Once again, little choice.
Under the cover of elections, Africans are experiencing a covert rolling
back of their hard-won democracy. What is also being revealed is the
duplicity of Western governments that talk the talk of democracy but offer
no resistance to creeping autocracy.
When Kagame, Yoweri Museveni and Zenawi led guerrilla armies to overthrow
brutal regimes in Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia respectively, Western
governments eagerly courted this “new generation” of African leaders who
would recreate their battered countries as modern democracies.
Yet each leader has since failed to live up to that promise, instead holding
power firmly in their grip with the generous support of foreign donors
including the United States. None has yet handed over power or shown any
signs they intend to.
Kagame has been Rwanda’s de facto ruler since 1994, Museveni has held power
since 1986 and Meles has ruled since 1991.
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