African Elections in 2021
Updated February 1, 2021
African Elections in 2021
Seventeen African countries are slated to hold presidential and/or legislative polls in 2021. Scheduled election dates are
listed below; some may be subject to change due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic or other factors.
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African Elections in 2021
Selected Country Election Snapshots
little opportunity for the opposition to gain power through
Uganda (Presidential & Parliamentary, Jan. 14)
elections.”
President Yoweri Museveni was elected to a sixth term in January
amid an internet blackout, in pol s marred by harassment of the
Benin (Presidential, April 11)
opposition and reported fraud. U.S. officials asserted that the
President Patrice Talon is widely expected to win a second five-
electoral process was “fundamentally flawed.” Museveni received
year term. His government has sharply curtailed Benin’s once
58% of the vote. Opposition candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka
vibrant civic space, cracking down on press freedoms and
Bobi Wine, received 34%; his new National Unity Platform leads
enacting a new electoral code that effectively excluded the
the opposition after winning 17% of directly elected seats in the
opposition from legislative elections in 2019. Several prominent
National Assembly, in which Museveni’s party retained a majority.
opposition leaders have been sentenced in absentia for various
Over a dozen ministers lost elections to opposition candidates.
crimes and are presently in exile.
Djibouti (Presidential, due by Feb. 8)
Chad (Presidential, April 11 & Parliamentary, Oct. 24)
President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, is running
President Idriss Déby, in power since 1990, is seeking a sixth
for a fifth term. (Term limits were lifted in 2010.) Djibouti has a
term. The State Department described the last elections, in 2016,
multiparty system, but the opposition remains constrained and
as “neither free nor fair.” National Assembly elections are
promised electoral reforms have yet to be implemented.
scheduled to take place in October, after a six-year delay.
Somalia (Presidential & Parliamentary, due by Feb. 8)
Ethiopia (Parliamentary, June 5)
President Mohamed Abdul ahi Farmaajo is seeking a second four-
The federal government’s decision to postpone August 2020
year term in a ten-candidate race that includes two former
elections due to COVID-19 spurred tensions with the Tigray
presidents. While efforts were made in 2020 to move to a one-
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had dominated Ethiopia’s
person, one-ballot system, the federal government and states
ruling coalition until a political transition brought Prime Minister
agreed in September 2020 on an indirect electoral model for
Abiy Ahmed to office in 2018. An armed conflict between federal
2021 in which clan-based electoral col eges vote for lower house
forces and the TPLF in the northeastern Tigray region that began
legislators, senators are elected by federal state assemblies, and
in November has since displaced over two mil ion people.
both houses then elect the president.
Insecurity in Tigray and in other parts of the country, alongside
concerns about democratic backsliding, raise questions about the
CAR (Parliamentary (second round), due in Feb.)
prospects for credible elections in 2021.
Parliamentary run-off elections are slated amid a renewed armed
rebellion against President Faustin-Archange Touadera.
São Tomé & Príncipe (Presidential, due by July)
President Evaristo Carvalho is running for a second five-year
Niger (Presidential (second round), Feb. 21)
term. The country has experienced multiple peaceful transfers of
The two top candidates in the December 2020 presidential
power, and elections are generally credible and competitive.
election wil compete in a run-off: Mohamed Bazoum of the ruling
party led the first round with 39%, and former president
Zambia (Presidential & Parliamentary, due by Aug. 12)
Mahamane Ousmane trailed with 17%. The winner wil succeed
President Edgar Lungu is likely to seek a legally controversial third
Mahamadou Issoufou, who is leaving office after two terms,
term against recurrent opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema.
marking Niger’s first democratic transition between two elected
Elections in 2016 ended with opposition riots. Lungu’s
presidents. A key opposition leader was barred from running due
administration, which faces a debt crisis and corruption
to a prior criminal conviction that he disputes.
allegations, appears likely to continue to use the courts and
security apparatus to obtain a favorable electoral outcome.
Cabo Verde (Parliamentary, due by March, Presidential, due Oct.)
Cabo Verde’s semi-presidential system divides powers between a
The Gambia (Referendum TBD; Presidential, due Dec. 4)
prime minister appointed by parliament, which is up for ful
President Adama Barrow, whose surprise victory over longtime
renewal in March, and a directly elected president. Incumbent
leader Yahya Jammeh in 2016 ushered in dramatic governance
president Jorge Carlos Fonseca faces constitutional term limits.
and human rights reforms, is expected to seek a second term.
The country has earned a reputation for competitive pol s and
Political tensions have risen as the coalition that brought Barrow
peaceful, regular transfers of power over the past two decades.
to power has fractured—in part over Barrow’s decision to serve
a ful five-year term, instead of three years as he initially pledged.
Côte d’Ivoire (Parliamentary, March 6)
Prospects for a referendum on a new constitution are uncertain
Legislative pol s wil test President Alassane Ouattara’s efforts to
as the National Assembly rejected a draft charter in 2020.
assuage the opposition after circumventing constitutional term
limits to win a controversial third term in violent, divisive
Libya (Referendum TBD; Parliamentary & Presidential, Dec. 24)
elections in late 2020. Key opposition parties that boycotted the
In November 2020, members of the U.N.-organized Libyan
2020 elections have signaled a wil ingness to participate in the
Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) announced plans to hold general
March pol s, likely reducing the risk of electoral violence—yet
elections on Libya’s Independence Day (12/24). While preparing
tensions remain high.
for these elections, Libyan regional bodies and the LPDF plan to
select a new interim Presidency Council and Prime Minister by
Republic of Congo (Presidential, March 21)
February 5. In January 2021, Libyan leaders also agreed to hold a
President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has ruled the country for
referendum in 2021 on the proposed constitution drafted by the
nearly 40 years, is expected to win a sixth term. His last
Constitutional Drafting Assembly elected in 2014.
reelection, in 2016, set off a brief armed conflict in which state
security forces reportedly committed serious abuses; the State
Sarah R. Collins, Coordinator, Research Assistant
Department described those pol s as “deeply flawed.” Key
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opposition leaders were recently sentenced to lengthy jail terms
on state security charges. Freedom House reports that “there is
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African Elections in 2021
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