Description:
Twelve years after the adoption of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, scholars and policymakers are still pondering whether the regional document has had any actual effect. Based on case studies from Madagascar and Burkina Faso, this article demonstrates the Charter’s impact on political dynamics within both countries. By analysing contestations around the application of Article 25(4), which defines who is eligible to run in transitional elections, I show that various national and international actors (attempt to) use the Charter as a legal script to limit access to state power and restrict the electorate’s voting choices. That these attempts are highly contentious is evidence of the Charter’s effect. If it were seen as irrelevant, nobody would bother to contest it. I therefore suggest studying the effects of the Charter from a different analytical angle – that is, “bottom-up” – by focusing on the settings and places in which it is actually applied.