Tanzania, Malawi, Cameroon, Gabon, and Ivory Coast will be the highlights of this year’s presidential elections as more than 10 African countries go to the polls in 2025.
Seychelles, Togo and the Central Republic are also expected to hold general elections, while Burundi, Comoros, and Egypt will hold parliamentary elections.
The polls will come years since the death of Tanzania’s 5th president John Magufuli, a first turn for his successor president Samia Suluhu Hassan to face the electorate in a country where the ruling party, CCM, has been at the helm since independence.
Samia has introduced reforms that have opened up the political and civic spaces, allowing public gatherings that had been banned by her predecessor.
She set up a task force on political reforms that recommended restructuring of the electoral process.
But while the reforms have benefited the two leading opposition parties, Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) and ACT-Wazalendo, cracks emerging from the Chadema could work in favour of Samia.
“CCM is still one of the founding parties during independence such as the ANC in South Africa and SWAPO in Namibia that is still at the helm of power in Africa. And by the look of things, it is still strong compared to other African political parties that came to power at independence,” said Dr Benson Musila, a lecturer in Political Science at Riara University in Nairobi.
“CCM remains active in the grassroots compared to other political parties making it strong even though the current generation may have lost count of its good deeds since independence.”
The ongoing infighting within Chadema, especially the one concerning party chairmanship, ahead of its various party wings scheduled for January 21, 2025 is feared could split the party.
The centre of attention is the apparent contention between current party chairperson Freeman Mbowe and his deputy for Tanzania Mainland Tundu Lissu.
The two are both running for the party chairmanship and continue to exchange bitter words publicly, which many interpret as sowing divisions and disunity within the party.
Malawi's former president, Peter Mutharika, is expected to challenge the incumbent, President Lazarus Chakwera in the September elections. It is a surprise move by the 84-year-old, who governed Malawi for six years and later suggested he would not run for office again.
Mutharika was last year chosen to lead the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into next year's presidential election.
Mr Mutharika lost to Mr Chakwera in 2020, in a re-run that was ordered by the country's Constitutional Court after it annulled the previous year's election
Chakwera’s ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) will have to defend its infrastructure record at the polls, and could yet make Mutharika’s age a key campaign issue.
Another interesting election to watch is Cameroon which holds the record of having the longest serving elected leader in Africa, President Paul Biya, who is seeking an 8th term at the country’s top political position.
Biya assumed office in 1982 after the resignation of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who had led the country since its independence in 1960.
At 92, Paul Biya remains the sole candidate of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement according to the party's constitution.
The Catholic Church in Cameroon has voiced concern over his candidature and even going ahead to advise Biya not to run for presidency.
The bishops have cited the President’s failing health and advanced age, together with years of un-kept promises as reasons Biya should step aside.
Opposition leaders including Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon’s (MRC)’s Maurice Kamto have been jailed.
Last year, the Cameroonian government described two other political groups seeking to create opposition coalitions as illegal.
Gabon, led by a military transitional council, will hold presidential elections in March, this year, according to junta leader Brice Oliqui Nguema.
The country approved a new constitution last year, which limits the president’s time in office to two, seven-year, terms, paving the way for elections.
General Nguema may likely run for president, potentially returning the country from African Union isolation. Nguema was sworn in as interim leader in September 2023, after his junta ousted President Ali Bongo in the eighth coup in West and Central Africa since 2020.
Cote d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara on Thursday signaled that he would like to continue serving his country as president but emphasised that his party had not yet made a formal decision on its candidate for this year's election.
Ouattara, 83, was re-elected for a contested third term in 2020.
Burundi will hold legislative elections on 5 June 2025 and a presidential election in May 2027 following the change of constitution that would see President Evariste Ndayishimiye stay in office for 2 years. The new law allows seven-year presidential terms.
In 2015, Burundi experienced violence, a crisis triggered by former President Nkurunziza’s announcement that he would run for a third term in office, in 2015.
