Review New Vision

Review by: Dent Ocaya-Lakidi, Associate Professor of Political Science, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

MASTERPIECE: It should be read by all African societies...

Out for the Count tackles the crucial question of the purpose of political elections head on and makes it the core issue around which all others resolve. The other issues encompass such problems as the functions and responsibilities of election organisers, officials and observers (foreign and local); the proper place of civil society in elections. Also the relationships and interplay among the political parties, the religious and the cultural, the pervasive and engaging role of ethnicity and the pervasive and clearly negative impact of extra-legal violence and vote buying on the conduct and outcome of elections are tackled. Others concern are the electoral systems, including the all-important mechanisms for the counting of votes - hence Out for the Count as part of the book's title.

The book is a thesis on politics regardless of the "stage of development". It illustrates that voting and elections serve three basic purposes. First, they act as exchange mechanisms for transactions between those who have or own the votes and those who want to receive and consolidate them as a means of gaining a defined role in the exercise of power. Second, they are a means for the expression of identity or belonging to a particular group or community. Finally, they facilitate the declaration of convictions on explicitly defined as well as vaguely defined issues.

In my view, the book's important and enduring contributions are in three areas, which may be grouped under the following themes: (i) the purpose and objectives for specific electoral exercises and the standards that ought to be attained with respect to each of them; (ii) the pervasive and enduring issues in African elections (such as ethnicity, vote buying and violence); and (iii) methodological frontiers in electoral research and studies.

A central concern of Out for the Count is the extent to which electoral practices have tended to subvert the objectives of elections and what to do about it. It is the preoccupation of the editors in both the introduction and conclusion and of almost all the contributions. Two examples can be cited. First, Francis Ang'ila Aywa and Francois Grignon's "As Biased as Ever? The Electoral Commission's Performance Prior to Polling day" (Chapter 5); which concludes that "Whether we consider the creation of new constituencies, the registration of voters or the regulation of voter activities, the ECK failed to provide a 'free and fair' environment and, therefore, failed to honour its duties towards the Kenya electorate." (p:131). One only has to substitute Uganda or another African country for Kenya and the gist of this statement would hold true for almost any national elections. In all cases the standards expected of national electoral authorities, by whatever names called, are universal: independence and impartiality, efficiency, professionalism and speedy adjudication of disputes, stability and transparency.

There is Musambayi Katumanga's "By Ballot, Pesa or Rungus: The Dialectics of the 1997 Electoral Politics in Western Kenya" (Chapter 19), which demonstrates the complex interplay among the activities of officialdom (the ruling party and its provincial administration), violence and vote buying; the ultimate result of which is the subversion of the goals of elections - the entire 'superstructure' ultimately resting on a base of economic under-development and poverty. "... Fundamental to any meaningful participatory process." Katumanga pleads in conclusion, "is the economic environment within which the process takes place. Given the level of poverty in Western province, it goes without saying that politicians will continue to buy votes in order to access power ..." (p. 533).

The critical question that arises out of such examples in the book and reflects the essential characteristic of African politics generally is why so many practices are stacked against the voter and the objectives of free and fair elections and what can be done about this? There is no single or simple answer to these questions. The various pieces in Out for the Count make useful suggestions covering, in combination, the need to improve on electoral observation, more effective media as electoral watchdogs, the need to cultivate more appropriate political cultures among the populace and in the long run the need to tackle the economic sources of poverty.

The second area of concern and major contribution in Out for the Count, can be considered under the theme of "pervasive and enduring issues in African elections" such as ethnicity, vote buying and violence. The core thesis of the work fully demonstrates its utility and versatility.

The editors effectively place the troublesome question of ethnicity within its local and universal contexts simultaneously. Ethnicity can then be seen as simply "one of the languages used to express other socio-economic or political aspirations" (p.11) rather than as some "primitive" or inherent aspect of an "underdeveloped" political system. Its specific manifestations among the Kamba, Kikuyu, Kalenjin in Kenya, as among the Baganda, the Itesot or Acholi in Uganda, for example, would be the rest of the specific historical trajectory of the time and short-time dimensions and producing specific political languages or culture of politics.

Such languages and cultures would be comparable across the globe. But this raises the question of election violence. Is it also simply one of the languages of politics, an aspect of political culture? The answer, based on the thesis and over all arguments in Out for the Count must be 'yes'. But there is something else to add here. Election violence which takes forms as diverse as the denial of registration to qualified voters or the robbery, unlike vote buying, is not an ambiguous factor in elections. It involves the use of force (the antithesis to the exercise of the vote) and is therefore a negative factor that stands as an obstacle to the realisation of any one of the three main objectives of political elections.

One major area of weakness in the book is its general, though hardly pronounced, anti-establishment and anti-KANU stance. It is as if apart from the three stated objectives of elections, an addition objective of the 1997 elections in Kenya ought to have been getting the Moi government out of power. In allowing this orientation to come through, the book goes against one of Professor Ross's pieces of advice, which ought to continue to carry a great deal of weight for practitioners and theoreticians alike.

On the whole Out for the Count is a serious and solid book. It is comprehensive, well researched and organised and has well written suggestions. It might yet attain the status of a classic in African electoral studies. The editors of Out for the Count argue for a single universal standard of democracy. The book is against the use of force in political elections.

'Out of the count is an important book. It is strongly recommended for university, college and public libraries.' Korwa Gombe Adar, Human Sciences Research Council. In: The African Book Publishing Record, vol. 29, no. 3, October 2003.