Staged-managed elections are becoming a norm in Africa, including in West Africa were ruling parties are using various tools to restrain democracy. This article published by Defence Web is from ISS Africa:

Ruling parties are using financial and political barriers to prevent their opponents from running for office.

In the past two years, several West African countries have enacted electoral laws and regulations that make running for political office more difficult. Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Senegal have either increased the registration fees that aspiring candidates must pay or mandated that contenders need other political actors’ endorsement.

At first glance, these reforms seem motivated by the need to improve elections and democracy. In some countries, the shift from single to multi-party systems has led to a proliferation of political parties. In such cases, governments say the changes are necessary filters to improve the political offerings for presidential and legislative elections.

Read the full article here.