The COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be a major crucible for globalization and the interconnected world order, and its multi-faceted impact has dwarfed World War II and the Global Financial Crisis in terms of both compound effects and shocks on a global scale.
As Zambians head to the polls in August 2021, learning from past electoral experiences will be valuable. Bearing in mind that the country is still battling with many challenges associated with the outbreak of the pandemic, this piece argues that avoiding a twin struggle of COVID-19 impacts and electoral violence, by conducting free, fair, credible and peaceful August elections would be the best option to enhance democratic principles and maintain the international standard of holding peaceful elections that Zambia has set for many years.
Somali leaders signed a landmark election agreement on 27 May 2021 in Mogadishu. Almost immediately afterwards a number of friends and constituents called me to ask why it had taken this long; why we had to go to the brink of armed conflict for them to sign, what, essentially, is a recycled version of the 17 September 2020 Agreement and the Baidoa Technical Team recommendations. How, they asked, could we be sure this agreement would not unravel, like so many agreements before it.
Thursday, 27 May 2021 marked a watershed moment for Somalia. It was the day Somali leaders met under the auspices of the National Consultative Council and announced a breakthrough in dialogue to resolve the impasse over the holding of federal elections. The deal provided an important implementation framework for the famous 17th September Agreement on parliamentary and presidential elections.
Following months of political impasse and rising tensions over the holding of elections in Somalia, the leaders of the Federal Government of Somalia and of the country’s Federal Member States signed a key agreement on 27 May that paves the way for elections. This was the culmination of several weeks of consensus-building efforts led by Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.
Since February, a series of rash political decisions took place that threw the country into chaos. Although the election deadlock has now been resolved and a new agreement reached on 27 May, the repercussions of the recent political drama are wide reaching.
On 27 May 2021, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and Federal Member States (FMS) signed a major agreement that would put the country back on an electoral pathway after months of intense political standoff over the type and process of elections. In late April, armed clashes broke out in the capital after the lower house of the bicameral parliament passed a controversial resolution extending its own mandate and that of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo by two years. The decision was rejected by almost all domestic political stakeholders in the country, as well as the overwhelming majority of the international community.
The key to a more stable and peaceful Africa lies in conflict prevention! Unfortunately, there is still reluctance, both by the international community and governments to invest in prevention. If we could focus more on prevention, much more could be achieved.
We live in a peculiar moment in history in which prevailing threats to peace and stability have collided with a pandemic that occurs once in a century. For the African continent, it is rather a precarious moment in which our realities and limitations have come to the fore, more than in previous decades.
The changing conflict contexts have refocused our attention on the theory and practice of conflict management and the need for transforming the ways in which we seek to Silence the Guns in Africa. In the 1990s the conflict contexts demanded that peace be sought internally between identifiable warring parties with the ability to do harm, usually government and one or two rebel groups seeking access to political power; that mediation went beyond ceasefire agreements to deliver more comprehensive peace accords; and peacekeeping broadened to encompass multidimensional peace support operations.