In 2020, 17 African countries will go to the polls in what will perhaps be the continent’s busiest democratic phase since the turn of the century.
Five of these elections will be carried out in Mali, Cameroon, Egypt, Chad and Comoros to appoint lawmakers. In the other 12, citizens will elect a president solely or that and lawmakers too.
Given the fragility of the democratic culture in much of the continent, elections are always testy periods. But the stakes are further raised by the perception and reality of what happens to losers.
In five of these upcoming elections, what observers expect is a myriad of era-defining polls as well as previews of what the future holds for some of the countries.
Another aspect we will be on the lookout for is how certain individuals will be fighting for their continued relevance as public servants. For some of these people, 2020 is the proverbial make-or-break time.
As follows are the five countries that are going to have hotly contested elections.
