MONITORING ELECTIONS IN AFRICA: INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF REGIONAL ACTORS By ANNA KAPAMBWE MWABA A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 1 © 2018 Anna Kapambwe Mwaba 2 To my parents 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, and foremost, I would like to thank my Chair, Bryon Moraski, for his unwavering support throughout this process. I appreciate his reading through countless pages, providing careful comments, and asking critical questions that challenged me and contributed to my development as a scholar. I will always be grateful for his mentorship and strict adherence to grammatical norms. I would also like to thank my committee members: Arfi Badredine, Daniel A. Smith, Leonardo Villalón, and Abraham Goldman for taking the time to read my research and strengthen this work. I am also indebted to the Department of Political Science for providing me with a place to work and access to resources that have aided in the completion of this project. I am especially grateful to the Center of African Studies for being a home away from home and a place where I have grown as both a person and as a scholar. I would like to thank the Department of Political Science, the Center of African Studies, and the University of Florida Graduate School for providing the resources that made this project a reality. I would like to thank Sue Lawless- Yanchisin for her constant positivity and for helping me navigate the formalities associated with graduate life on countless occasions. I would also like to thank my fellow Africanists: Mamadou Bodian, Chesney McComber, Daniel Eizenga, Lina Benabdallah, Oumar Ba, and Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, for all the support, advice, and shared experiences over the years. I would like to say a special thank you to Emily Pukuma, my dear friend and colleague, who has been a constant source of encouragement throughout this graduate journey and without whom this process would not have been the same. I am thankful to all the research participants I met while in the field. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about your experiences and help me uncover the intricacies of election 4 observation in Africa. While I am unable to share your names, you know who you are and please know how grateful I am for your assistance with this project. I am grateful to my parents for all their support, love, and patience over the last few years. My parents, Andrew and Catherine, have served as examples of resilience and have always been there to support me when I needed them the most. I appreciate them for sending me to school at three and making me fall in love with reading and encouraging me to ask questions from a young age. I am thankful for my siblings, Kasonde and Bwalya, who have been sources of encouragement at times when I was unsure of what the future entailed. I would like to also thank my sister and best friend, Nancy, who was there for all the ups and downs of the writing process and for constantly reminding me of how far I have come. I want to express a heartfelt thank you to my second parents, Charles and Judith, for all your support over the years and for always pushing me to be better. Last, and definitely not least, I would like to thank my husband, Adrian, for his love and patience throughout this process. Even with the distance, he remained a constant source of positivity and always there for me without my ever having to ask. He was always a reminder that there was life outside the dissertation. Words cannot express how grateful I am for him. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................................................10 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................12 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................15 Introduction .............................................................................................................................15 Election Observation as a Global Norm: Monitoring the Developing World ........................19 Political Dimensions of International Election Monitoring....................................................26 2 CHARTING ELECTION MONITOR BEHAVIOR ..............................................................31 Introduction .............................................................................................................................31 IO as Embodiments of the State .............................................................................................45 IOs as Independent Actors ......................................................................................................49 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................52 3 METHODOLOGY AND INTRODUCTION OF INTERVENING VARIABLES ...............54 Introduction .............................................................................................................................54 Case Selection .........................................................................................................................56 International Organization Case Selection ......................................................................56 Country Case Selection ...................................................................................................61 A Note on the Datasets Used ..................................................................................................65 Data Collection Process ..........................................................................................................72 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................77 4 THE CONSIDERATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION ..................................................78 Introduction .............................................................................................................................78 The European Economic Community to the European Union ...............................................78 The EU and its Institutions .....................................................................................................82 The EU as Promoter of Democracy ........................................................................................88 The European Union and Election Observation .....................................................................95 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................103 6 5 THE AFRICAN UNION, DEMOCRACY, AND ELECTION OBSERVATION ..............105 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................105 Redefining the African Union ..............................................................................................106 Advancing the Democratic Agenda: Introducing Election-Monitoring as a Governance Tool ...................................................................................................................................122 The Challenges of Financing Election Observation .............................................................140 The AU as an Election Observer ..........................................................................................145 Short-term observation missions (STO) ........................................................................151 Long-term observation missions (LTO) ........................................................................153 Expert/Technical Assessment Missions (TAM) ............................................................156 Pre-and Post-Election Audits ........................................................................................157 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................158 6 THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC) .......................160 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................160 From SADCC to SADC........................................................................................................160 SADC and the Move towards Democratic Governance .......................................................165 SADC and Updating its Election Observation Procedures ...................................................178 Partners in Monitoring? ........................................................................................................203 SADC Parliamentary Forum .........................................................................................205 SADC Electoral Commissions Forum ...........................................................................207