Executive Summary
This paper utilises a political economy approach to scrutinise the impact of the 2024 elections on the consolidation of democracy in the 14 countries covered by the Electoral Support Network of Southern Africa (ESN-SA). All the countries have committed to the protocols, norms and standards that guide elections in the region: the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring, and Observation (PEMMO) and the African Charter
on Elections, Democracy and Governance (ACDEG) (2007).
International and Domestic Observer Missions observed elections in these seven countries (Botswana, Comoros, Mauritius, Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia and South Africa) and the other eight
countries that had elections before 2024 and made recommendations to improve the integrity of the vote and the overall institutional democratic electoral processes. The outcomes of the 2024 elections caused some unexpected shifts in leadership in some countries that heralds potential change in the SADC region. Two of the countries, Botswana and Mauritius had peaceful political power alternations; South Africa ended up with a coalition government as there was no outright winner; Comoros and
Namibia had intense contestations from the opposition parties, and Mozambique erupted into violence that went on for longer than three months after the election. Highlights from the paper are presented below.
