These past three weeks have witnessed a slew elections in at least four democracies: Brazil, Israel, the United States of America and South Africa. The 25 October 2026 Presidential rerun in Brazil returned the popular leftist incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to power. In the first round, he came second to the son of the immediate past President, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro. This victory gives Lula, as he is popularly named, a fourth non-consecutive term.
The elections were largely free and fair. Even international independent observers including the Carter Centre reported that the process was organized and transparent. The first round of October 4, 2026 was said to be “largely peaceful and administratively well organized”. Apart from Senator Bolsonaro secretly fleeing to the United States, to the surprise of his supporters and apparently to evade prosecution for alleged corruption, nothing untoward has happened in the country since the election results were announced.
Two days after the Brazil’s runoff, the Israelis went to the polls to elect their parliamentarians, and by extension a new Prime Minister. The incumbent, the indomitable Benjamin Netanyahu, already the longest serving Prime Minister, wants to continue. Though his Likud Party won the highest number of seats, he is not able to form a government because his coalition partners are short of the minimum 61 seats needed to form a government in a 120 seat parliament.
The coalition’s poor outing stemmed primarily because of OCTOBER 7. October 7, 2023 was the day Hamas and its supporters invaded Israeli territory and killed over a 1,200 people and took hundreds of others hostage.
The price Netanyahu paid at the polls was not a result of his government’s handling of the aftermath of the massacre, but for allowing the incident to happen in the first place. Many Israelis are still seethed that Hamas was able to carry out the act without the Israeli intelligence knowing and preventing it. They just would not forgive him, and decided to punish him with their votes. As it stands, no one can say who will be the next Prime Minister, as the coalition led by his main rival, General Gadi Eisenkot (Rtd), is still 13 seats shy of a majority.
But the point being made here is that, apart from the unproven allegation of foreign (read Arab countries) influence in the election in favour of the two Arab-led parties (which garnered 19 seats combined, their highest ever), the elections were free, fair and credible. No violence was reported and the security forces were not used to rig the elections. Election outcome reflected the true wishes of the citizens. An incumbent Prime Minister may be unseated.
On the heels of the Israeli elections was the much trumpeted midterm elections in the United States which held on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Borrowing a superlative from President Donald Trump, one can say that he and his Republican Party lost massively with a very wide margin, perhaps “never before had in American history”(emphasis mine)!
The electorate took the hyperbolic Trump to the cleaners. The prolonged yet unpopular war with Iran, which resulted in high pump prices of gasoline (petrol) and other commodities, is the primary culprit. Second to it is the high handedness with which President Trump has prosecuted his antimigrant campaign. A third reason for the failure of the Republicans was the inability of any strong voice in the party to speak up against Trump’s excesses, itself a fallout of his bully-your-opponents-to-submission tactics.
With the takeover of both the Senate and the House of Representatives by the Democrats, the proudly, blame-others Trump has been tamed. The Democrats, whom he had wounded massively will come after him, his family and his officials. The last two years of his presidency will be full of drama, investigation and all. At the minimum, Cuba, Canada, Europe and Iran will heave a sigh of relief that at last, the Democrats will keep him busy and take him off their backs.
A similar point being made here is that the power of incumbency could not save Trump and his Republican Party from the trouncing at the polls. Elections were free, fair and transparent. Again, violence was not reported and the security agencies were not used to intimidate the electorate.
Down south, we had South Africa hold its local elections on November 4, 2026. The over hundred year old African National Congress (ANC) which had been ruling the country since the end of apartheid in 1994 had its worst outing. The party which has also been mismanaging the country since after Nelson Mandela, lost more seats than ever in parliament. It won just 30.76 percent of the votes compared to a commanding 45.59 percent it won four years ago. Its main rival, Democratic Alliance (DA) had its best showing ever with 24.64 percent.
Though ANC still holds the highest number of seats, its majority holding has been considerably whittled down by DA and other smaller parties. ANC, which was a predominant party in the country years back, will need to transform from within if it must stay relevant in the country’s political landscape.
The clearest sign is that if it continues to mismanage the country, it may be shipped out of power by the next election. That country has also lost a lot of goodwill in the African continent given the way it handled the xenophobic issue.
Again, the same thread observed in Brazil, Israel and the United States repeated South Africa as the election was free, fair and transparent. The ruling party lost many seats and did not use the armed forces to truncate the will of the people through intimidation, violence and rigging.
It is clear from these cases that democracy is rooted in these countries. At least the major tenets of democracy were and are still on display. These tenets are popular sovereignty; the rule of law; free and fair elections; political equality; fundamental human rights; and majority rule and minority rights. Others include separation of powers; accountability and transparency; independent judiciary and freedom of the press.
Based on these tenets, one can easily identify a democracy when he or she sees one in practice. REFLECTIONS! has been consistent in its position that Nigeria is not a democracy. If in doubt, how many of these ten foundational tenets are in place in the country?
Let us examine just a few. First, accountability and transparency. If you dare ask your local government chairman to account for his stewardship, he will send thugs after you. If you make the mistake of asking your governor to do so, it would have been better that you were not born! Governors award contracts to whoever they want using opaque tender processes. Values of those contracts are among the highest in the world, and sometimes reviewed upwards. Many of our governors have elevated themselves to deities who must be worshipped. There is only one explanation for this kind of response from our “elected” officials: we are not practicing democracy.
Should we examine independent judiciary? The Nigerian judiciary has psychedelically presented itself as a prospective bride to the executive branch of government and they are now in bed as husband and wife. The judiciary has surrendered head and all to the husband executive. “Go to court” simply means complain to my wife!
Free and fair elections? Professor Pat Utomi’s statement will suffice here: “An APC fellow escorted INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, to Chatham House the other day, and Nigerians are expected to believe that the man entrusted with protecting the integrity of their votes is above partisan influence? What exactly are we supposed to make of this?
Elections are built on trust and trust is not sustained by demanding that citizens believe blindly, it is earned through conduct that leaves no room for reasonable suspicion.
When the head of an electoral institution is seen moving in the company of partisan political actors, questions are inevitable. You cannot ask Nigerians to trust the referee when his conduct gives them reason to question whose side he is on. And yet, somehow, Nigerians are expected to swallow their doubts and call it democracy”.
Political equality? Hey hey hey!!! Have you not seen how agents of party in power are hounding those from the opposition parties? In Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Benue, Ekiti and many other states, thugs of APC are going after supporters and candidates from other parties. Even the President was not spared by those who don’t want him to come back! Serving ministers are spewing hate and openly giving and promising bribes for votes.
Press Freedom. I can attest that this has been largely in place in Nigeria, but it was not given by the government. The press has largely fought and sustained its independence in the country, even under military regime (I practiced journalism during that dark era); and this has been accentuated by technological advancements. There is now not much that governments can do about it outside of the buying of compromising practitioners especially at the state level.
I have already satisfied myself with the fact that the 2027 selection, sorry, election, may not be fair nor free. Given the current trend, it may be worse than the 2007 elections that the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo conducted. Even the beneficiary of that fraud, the humble late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, admitted that much, and in his inaugural address, promised to work to fix the faulty electoral system.
A VERY SHORT TAKE:
Professor Christopher Ekong, the new Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, had his first convocation ceremony as a VC over the weekend.
And he started with awarding a Tompolo an honorary doctorate degree as a distinguished Nigerian! Permit me to laugh myself to sleep!
Esiere is a former journalist!
©️2026
