In Senegal, the president tried to cancel an election. In Niger, a Military coup overthrew an elected president who is still imprisoned in the presidential palace eight months later. In Chad he was the leading opposition politician killed in a shootout with security forces. And in Tunisia, once the only democratic success story of the Arab Spring uprisings, the president is steering the state in this direction increasing autocracy.

democracy is in trouble in the former French colonies in Africa. And the two ways it is being undermined — by the elected officials tasked with maintaining it or by coup plotters who overthrow governments — reflect the same malaise, some experts say.

After gaining independence from France in the 1960s, the emerging states modeled themselves on France’s constitution and concentrated power in the hands of presidents. And France maintained a network of business and political ties with its former colonies – a system known as Françafrique – and often propped up corrupt governments. These are some of the reasons that analysts give for the crisis of democracy in these countries.

While A majority of Africans surveyed still say they prefer democracy to other forms of government. Support for it is decreasing in Africa while support for military rule is increasing – it has doubled since 2000. According to Boniface Dulani, survey director at Afrobarometer, a non-partisan research organization, this change is occurring much faster in former French colonies than in former British colonies.

“People are disillusioned with democracy,” he said.

The ground is prepared for military takeovers. Eight of the nine successful coups in Africa since 2020 have taken place in former French colonies – the only exception is Sudan, a former British colony. Former French colonies were “champions of coups” and advocates of a hollow pretense of “constitutional order” and democracy, said Ndongo Samba Sylla, co-author of a new book about France and its former African colonies.

“Ordinary people are against your constitutional order,” Mr. Sylla said. “We call this a despotic order.”

None of the nine African countries classified as “free” by Freedom House, a pro-democracy group, are former French colonies. And half of the continent’s 20 former French colonies received the worst rating of the group: “not free.” All scored worse on Freedom House’s freedom scale in 2023 than in 2019, except for Djibouti and Morocco, which remained the same, and Mauritania, which recently began holding elections after decades of military rule.

And military rule is back, although junta leaders often speak the language of democracy, calling themselves “interim governments,” promising elections and appointing civilian ministers.

Guinea, which has been ruled by the military ever since stormed the presidential palace In 2021, elections should take place in October. But in February, soldiers gathered in the same palace to issue a decree that threatened to delay any election.

“The government is dissolved,” one soldier declared, as 19 other junta members and armed soldiers in uniform stood behind him on the palace’s red-carpeted steps.

Senegal has long been considered an exception to this anti-democratic trend, but in February President Macky Sall shocked the country forever Postponement of the election for his successor, just three weeks before the start of the elections.

His government has adopted tactics used by others to stay in power across Francophone Africa: shutting down the internet, banning demonstrations, Killing of protesters and throw opposition politicians in prison.

Senegal’s Constitutional Court has resumed the electionwhich is is now planned for this Sunday. And Mr Sall has just released two key opposition leaders from prison – one of whom is a presidential candidate.

Of course, democratic backsliding is not limited to the former French colonies in Africa. From that United States From Brazil to Hungary and Venezuela, democracy faces challenges in many countries around the world. And African countries with no historical connection to France are not exempt: the leaders of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, for example, do not tolerate disagreement.

What the former French colonies have in common, however, are political systems that are heavily influenced by France and have extremely strong presidential powers that make it difficult to keep their institutions under control, said Gilles Olakounlé Yabi, founder and executive director of the West Africa Citizen Think Tank .

“That legacy is still very present,” he said.

In Benin, President Patrice Talon was re-elected in 2021 Change in election rules to prevent anyone but his supporters from running for office. 91-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya been in power since 1982, after the abolition of term limits. Togo’s politics have been controlled by the same family since 1963, despite calls for electoral reform. In Ivory Coast, incumbent President Alassane Ouattara won a controversial third term in 2020 with 94 percent of the vote in what opposition activists called a “sham election.”

Mr. Yabi calls the malaise “hyper-presidentialism,” and he has done it argued for a long time that countries should adopt more detailed constitutions to strengthen the separation of powers and rein in individual leaders.

There are also non-French-speaking countries that suffer from “hyper-presidentialism,” Mr. Yabi said. But former British colonies in Africa tend to have stronger parliaments and judicial systems that limit presidential powers.

There have been a number of coups in the Sahel, the dry strip south of the Sahara. Five years ago, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso each had presidents who suppressed the opposition, silenced the press or tried to change constitutions. Now they are under military rule.

Profound changes occurred across Africa in the 1960s as countries gained independence from their colonial masters, and again at the dawn of multi-party democracy in the 1990s, which followed decades of single-party or military rule.

The region is at another “pivotal moment,” said Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, an analyst at the International Crisis Group who focuses on the Sahel. This time the question is whether democracy will return to the junta-run countries, all of which have promised elections in 2024 but are failing to do so few signs to organize them.

Many people living under military rule say elections are not a priority. Juntas are gaining popularity by criticizing France, expelling French soldiers and media groups and collaborating with Russia – even as citizens struggle to make ends meet, in part because of regional sanctions against junta-run countries.

“It’s hell,” admitted Abdoulaye Cissé, a motorcycle delivery man in Bamako, the capital of Mali, recently. But he said he doesn’t want elections because the junta is working hard. “We have to try to support them and give them a little time,” he said.

For Mamadou Koné, a security official in Bamako, the junta represents “a first attempt by African leaders to completely free themselves from colonial oppression.” Rising prices and food shortages are only part of the “high price of freedom,” he said.

France’s influence on the continent has changed and weakened in recent decades, most recently focusing on fighting jihadists in the Sahel. But the perception That it still holds the reins is real, analysts say, and is driving politics across Francophone Africa.

Certain presidents and regional organizations considered allies of France are clouded by associations, such as the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, a confederation of states that is often accused of condemning military coups but not power grabs by sitting presidents. When the coup took place in Niger, ECOWAS threatened to invade; When the Senegalese president canceled the election, he only released a statement calling on him to hold elections.

The leader of Burkina Faso’s junta, who became the world’s youngest president when he took power in 2022, recently said the civilian presidents of ECOWAS alliance countries were coup plotters like him.

“There are many coup plotters in ECOWAS,” said Captain Ibrahim Traoré said in DecemberHe wore a red beret and desert camouflage and sat on a gilded chair where his civilian predecessor had once sat. “They never followed their own rules.”

Many West Africans agree and are more open to the military version of coupism than before.

In Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, juntas are often seen as representatives of the people and their interests, while elected leaders are portrayed as Western – and particularly French – pawns.

“There is a feeling that France is really intervening a lot in the region and that many of these leaders are basically puppets of France,” said Mr. Dulani of Afrobarometer. “Part of this disillusionment with democracy is the extent to which people think that democratic governments serve France’s interests more than their own.”

Mamadou Tapily Contribution to reporting from Bamako, Mali.