Africa scrambles to adjust to a new Western-style democratic reality, writes Gamal Nkrumah Ivory Coast's quest for political stability is underway. We may ask how long it takes to cross the poverty threshold and gain a decent standard of living in Tanzania, Ivory Coast and the rest of Africa. Before questioning the assumptions about African democracy we need to look from time to time more closely into the dynamics of contemporary African politics. Recovery and reconstruction are far from complete in the Ivory Coast. The Muslim north is battling the predominantly Christian and animist south for political supremacy. The global financial crisis has been less damaging to the Ivorian economy, dependent on the export of primary commodities such as cocoa and coffee. The country's economic policymakers, many foreign experts, have received international praise for their response to the civil war that ripped Ivory Coast apart. Indeed, the West African country's economic policymakers have been persistently pushing forward Ivory Coast's interlinkages with its neighbours as well as with its traditional European economic partners. The war has had its abrogating repercussions. However, the export-driven Ivorian economy has demonstrated a resilience that gives this West African economic powerhouse unmistakable buoyancy, political optimism and a peculiar pollyannaism. Laurent Gbagbo is facing the battle of his political life in the hotly contested Ivorian presidential election race. He has a good chance of renewing his presidency. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete is in much the same political boat in elections this week. Alassane Outtara, former prime minister of Ivory Coast is a Muslim whose Ivorian nationality is disputed because it is claimed by his detractors that his parents hailed from neighbouring Mali or Burkina Faso. Outtara, however, has firmly stuck to his guns. He insists that he is an Ivorian citizen and therefore entitled to run for the presidency. After all, he has held political office before and is widely acknowledged even by his critics as a charismatic leader. Ironically, Alassane Outtara, a former IMF official, is keen to project his socialist credentials. If the Ivory Coast can pull off free and fair presidential polls then the country has a bright future, whoever wins. Henri Conan Bedie is another promising Ivorian presidential candidate. Bedie, a former Ivorian president ousted in a 1999 coup d'état, is popular in the southwestern part of the country, but he adamantly refuses to be seen as a tribalist. Bedie stressed that he has an entirely different political agenda for his country that is Pan-Africanist in orientation. The change of tone and priorities of the presidential candidates is palpable. Ivory Coast Electoral Commission President Youssouf Bakayoko announced at the beginning of the campaign that if no candidate wins outright then a run-off will take place next month. The speeches of the three main presidential candidates in Ivory Coast have been light on populism and heavy on civility. More than 80 per cent of Ivory Coast's 5.7 million voters cast their ballot, reflecting popular excitement with participating in the electoral process. "There is, however, a problem with the transporting and the processing of these election documents," Christian Dan Preda, head of the EU observation mission confessed. "The delay poses a problem." Yet the mood is upbeat. "Peace is closer than ever," said Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abidjan Jean-Pierre Kutwa. Ethnic and religious tensions have turned the Ivorian presidential poll on its head. Kutwa raised eyebrows to claims that the Ivorian Ministry of Defence was recently embroiled in a corruption scandal that entailed a dubious arms deal. "People at the highest levels of the Ivorian government knew about this deal as early as September 2009," noted James Bevan, head of the UN monitors. Some 8,000 European Union peacekeepers and 1,500 additional policemen patrol the streets of Abidjan, the country's commercial capital and Yamousoukrou, the administrative capital. The six-year-old arms embargo has helped to cool the situation, but there are still arms cached. The police have received $3.8 million in arms (mainly handguns), ammunition and tear gas designed for "crowd control". Colonel Yao N'guessan was dispatched to the US to purchase arms and ammunition. A few years ago, Ivory Coast was fast sliding towards becoming a failed state. The EU is determined to work with the democratically elected government of the Ivory Coast to help address the challenges the resource-rich country faces. Ivory Coast is inching closer towards fully-fledged multi-party democracy, but it still has some way to go. A couple of months ago, Stéphane Guédé, the publisher of Le Nouveau Courrier, Saint Claver Oula, the editor-in-chief and Théophile Kouamono, managing editor of the paper were fined and their newspaper suspended for publishing anti-Gbagbo editorials. On the other side of the African continent, Tanzania, too, held municipal, legislative and presidential polls this week. EU monitoring team in Tanzania declared the elections free and fair. Tanzania's 239 constituencies are mostly rural. Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) has been in power for the last half a century even though other political parties have made impressive inroads in the political arena. Tanzania, unlike Ivory Coast, is experiencing a growing political clout that mirrors its rising economic status. The East African country has witnessed hitherto unheard of high economic growth in recent years -- an expected 6.5 per cent this year and 6.7 per cent in 2011. Tanzania is Africa's fourth largest gold producer after South Africa, Ghana and Mali. The presidential results in Zanzibar, a predominantly Muslim archipelago in a political union with mainland Tanzania (which is roughly divided between Muslims and Christians) were announced a few days before the results in mainland Tanganyika. In Zanzibar, President-elect Ali Mohamed Shein of the ruling CCM was declared winner defeating Sherif Hamad of the opposition Civic United Front. Religion, be it political Islam or fundamentalist Christianity, has unfortunately become a decisive factor in the political struggles in Africa blurring the more pertinent social problems like education, health and welfare facing the continent. Ivory Coast in the west and Tanzania in the east epitomise this dilemma. The founding father of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, was able to put in the background religious and tribal conflicts in the pursuit of social justice. He did so using the vehicle of a one-party state that had an authentic socialist programme behind it. When he stepped down voluntarily, his successors failed to carry on his vision. There is little enthusiasm among the voters to bring back either socialism or a one-party political system in the hope that Western-style pluralism will improve living standards. So far that has failed. The Tanazanian voters want a quick fix and Kitwete cannot deliver, just as the three contenders in Ivory Coast can't live up to the legacy of the nation's founding father Houpheut Boigney. They are accustomed to turning a blind eye to authoritarian excesses. This is politically understandable. The paradox at the moment is for the African electoral enthusiasts to understand that democracy doesn't feed the masses. "Democracy not dictatorship" has become a buzzword. It is a phrase that crops up again and again. Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa producer. The country's 5.7 million voters deserve better. The Tanzanian people, too, deserve better. This is politically understandable.
