Call for book chapters: “The Judicialization of Elections in Africa: Emerging trends and trajectories”

We are inviting book chapters for a forthcoming edited volume on “The Judicialization of Elections in Africa: Emerging trends and trajectories”. Editors: Dr Frangton Chiyemura, Lecturer in International Development, Development Policy and Practice, The Open University, United Kingdom frangton.chiyemura@open.ac.uk, and Dr Patrick Dzimiri, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, Department of Development Studies, University of Venda, South Africa Patrick.Dzimiri@univen.ac.za Elections have become the most widely recognized benchmark for determining a country’s participatory democratic processes, particularly in Africa. Holding elections has become synonymous with democracy (Cheeseman, Lynch & Willis, 2020; Oduro, 2021). However, reality on the ground often contradicts this, particularly in societies marked by socio-political cleavages. While it was nearly impossible to imagine democratic elections and peaceful transitions of power in Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, multi-party elections have become fashionable (Bleck & Van de Walle, 2018). Despite the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacting electoral processes worldwide, over 20 African countries are set to hold national, parliamentary, and local government elections in 2023 (Dulani et al., 2021; Haute et al., 2021; Asaju, 2023; African Arguments, 2022). This indicates that elections have become a routine feature of political life in every African country. While elections have become frequent in Africa, they have not always produced the desired outcomes of democratic consolidation or resulted in a peaceful transfer of power, leading to the perception that elections in Africa are a curse rather than a blessing. Allegations of rigging, disputed outcomes, overturned electoral verdicts, polarizing effects, pre- and post-electoral violence and intimidation, and political chicanery all contribute to this (Daniel & Southall, 2019). As a result, questions have arisen about whether Africa has electoral democracies or liberal democracies. Despite several studies that have made significant strides in exploring electoral processes, including disputed and undisputed outcomes, the role of the judiciary, particularly courts at the federal, provincial, or local level, in resolving electoral outcomes has received limited attention in the literature (Ronceray & Byiers, 2019; Alexander, 2020). Linked to this, there is also an emerging trend of the “judicialization” of electoral processes, which has both pre- and post-election implications (Appiah-Thompson & Jose, 2021; Appiah-Thompson, Jose & Moore, 2022; Kwarteng, 2014; Kanyinga & Odote, 2019; Cheeseman et al., 2019).
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The edited volume seeks to foreground and offer forward-looking intellectual insights that proffer empirically diverse, theoretically deep and methodologically compelling insights into the role, meaning, substance and dynamics of the judiciary’s involvement in African electoral processes. We invite contributions focusing (but not limited) to the following topics: •The nexus between judiciary, elections, and democracy in Africa. •The role of the judiciary in electoral processes in Africa. •Multi-party politics, elections and the judiciary in Africa. •Electoral conflicts and judiciary capture in Africa. •Incumbent regime types, leadership, and election outcomes. •The judiciary, election credibility, legitimacy and integrity. •Media framing of the judicial processes during elections in Africa. •Election Management Bodies and the Judiciary System. •Judiciary and the responsibility to protect citizens’ right to vote. •Gender Equity, judiciary, and elections. •Coalitions party politics and elections. •The judicial and electoral violence in Africa. •Innovative methodologies for teaching and researching “Courts and Elections”. Submission information If you are interested in contributing to this edited volume, please send details of the following: • The name(s) of contributing authors, email & their affiliations. • The proposed title of the contribution. • An abstract not exceeding 300 words to be submitted to: frangton.chiyemura@open.ac.uk and patrick.dzimiri@univen.ac.za
Prospective publisher is SAGE Publications. Further guidelines for publication will be shared with the selected contributors. Important dates Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 December 2023 Acceptance of Abstracts: 10 December 2023 Deadline for full chapter submission: 30 March 2024 Publication of the book: (expected) August 2024
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References: Karuti Kanyinga & Collins Odote (2019) Judicialisation of politics and Kenya’s 2017 elections, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 13:2, 235-252, DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2019.1592326 Christopher Appiah-Thompson & Jim Jose (2021) Adjudicating electoral disputes or judicialising politics? The Supreme Court of Ghana and the disputed 2012 presidential election in perspective, The Round Table, 110:6, 694-708, DOI: 10.1080/00358533.2021.2011020 Christopher Appiah-Thompson, Jim Jose & Tod Moore (2022) Examining the mediating role of Ghana’s customary institutions in resolving the 2012 electoral conflict, African Identities, DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2022.2146050 Charles Kwarteng (2014) Swords into Ploughshares: The Judicial Challenge of Ghana’s 2012 Presidential Election Results, The Round Table, 103:1, 83-93, DOI: 10.1080/00358533.2013.874165 Nic Cheeseman, Karuti Kanyinga, Gabrielle Lynch, Mutuma Ruteere & Justin Willis (2019) Kenya’s 2017 elections: winner-takes-all politics as usual?, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 13:2, 215-234, DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2019.1594072 Alexander, D (2020) What role will the courts play in determining the election’s outcome? Available at https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/11/03/presidential-election-supreme-court-steven-schneebaum/ Ronceray and Byiers (2019) Elections in Africa – Playing the game or bending the rules? Discussion paper number 261. Available https://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/Elections-Africa-Playing-Game-Bending-Rules-ECDPM-Discussion-Paper-261.pdf Oduro F (2021) The Changing Nature of Elections in Africa: Impact on Peacebuilding. In: McNamee T., Muyangwa M. (eds) The State of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46636-7_10 Cheeseman, N., Lynch, G., & Willis, J (2020) The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa: Democracy, Voting and Virtue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108265126 Bleck, J., & Van de Walle, N (2018) Electoral politics in Africa since 1990: Continuity in change. Cambridge University Press. Daniel, J., & Southall, R (2019) Electoral corruption and manipulation in Africa: the case for international monitoring. In Voting for Democracy (pp. 37-56). Routledge. African Arguments (2022) Africa Elections 2022/2023: All the upcoming votes, https://africanarguments.org/2022/12/africa-elections-all-upcoming-votes/
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Asaju, T (2023) Welcome To 2023, Africa’s Year Of Elections. Daily Trust, https://dailytrust.com/welcome-to-2023-africas-year-of-elections/ Boniface Dulani, Adam Harris, Ellen Lust, Karen Ferree, Kristen Kao, Cecilia Ahsan Jansson & Erica Ann Metheney (2021) Elections in the time of covid-19: the triple crises around Malawi’s 2020 presidential elections, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 31:sup1, 56-68, Tristan Haute, Camille Kelbel, François Briatte & Giulia Sandri (2021) Down with Covid: patterns of electoral turnout in the 2020 French local elections, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 31:sup1, 69-81, DOI: 10.1080/17457289.2021.1924752

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