By Saikujohn Barrie
20 April 2025 @8:40
Across the globe, and particularly in Africa, military officers who stage coups often promise to restore democracy by conducting free and fair elections.
They make grand pronouncements about dismantling bad governance and corruption systems that existed under the regimes they overthrew, pledging to hold elections that truly reflect the wishes and desires of the citizens.
However, as time passes, these promises often unravel.
Junta leaders begin to deviate from their initial public statements, resorting to muzzling political opposition, chasing away viable candidates, incarcerating others on trumped-up charges, or even orchestrating the forced disappearances of activists.
These tactics instill fear and intimidation in the general population.
Adding insult to injury, apologists for the junta leader and his regime emerge like mushrooms, forming support groups across the country.
These groups declare the junta leader as eligible and fit to run for the presidency in the upcoming elections.
After galvanizing support from rogue politicians and poverty-stricken social groups, they proclaim the junta leader as the only hope for the country’s development and survival.
Inevitably, one unfortunate morning for democracy, the junta leader announces his intention to run for the presidency.
By this point, vibrant political parties have been weakened or suffocated to death.
The junta leader either forms a new party or joins an existing one, having already manipulated electoral laws and handpicked officials in the electoral governing body responsible for conducting the so-called free and fair elections.
The result is a sham election, a mere ritual, where the junta leader is declared the winner.
Take, for example, the recently concluded elections in Gabon and other countries in Africa and around the world—clear examples of this travesty of democracy at play.
In my view, if a military junta leader truly wants to be a democratically elected civilian president, he should not contest in the elections he conducts.
A genuine democratic leader would oversee elections, hand over power to the rightful winner, retire, and then return as a civilian—just as a few military leaders have done in the past.Sierra Leone as a case study.
If a junta leader believes he is popular and loved by his people, why manipulate the electoral system and rig the process in his favor, only to call it free and fair?
Has anyone ever seen a military junta leader who removed his uniform lose an election he contested?
Can such leaders, who claim to win elections, truly be described as democratically elected and legitimate?
If they are genuinely democratic, why not conduct an election, hand over power, retire as military personnel, and contest later as a real civilian—not as a fake civilian using military influence to sway the outcome?
Sadly, most military junta leaders who seize power and transition into civilian clothing often become dictators, disregarding constitutional term limits.
To be fair, there are civilian leaders who also manipulate constitutions to endlessly contest elections.
However, it makes no sense for a junta leader to contest in an election he organizes.
I strongly believe that the same urge and desire that drove a military officer to overthrow a civilian government would compel him to twist electoral laws and systems in his favor, ensuring he is the only possible winner.
If a junta leader wants to continue ruling, he should simply remove his uniform and remain in power as a civilian.
Elections conducted under his leadership would not determine his continuity; the outcome is already decided.
So why waste state resources on campaigns and make citizens waste their time voting in a predetermined election?
To me, the biggest joke, deception, and daylight robbery occur when a military junta leader conducts an election he intends to contest as a civilian.
Let us observe how the elections conducted by military juntas in West Africa unfold.
Will any of them miraculously lose?
I rest my case.
