Comparing the State of Democratic Elections Among South Africa (2019), Tanzania (2020), and Ghana (2020)

Abstract: The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) (2021) indicates that Tanzania has scored lower democratic performance than Ghana and South Africa, however, the criteria used for ranking democratic performance are general and not specific enough to justify the state of democratic elections in comparative terms, between South Africa, Ghana, and Tanzania. These countries share some features, for instance, the adoption of international instruments for governing democratic elections, however, they have different scores in democracy, with Tanzania being at the low level, as indicated by the EIU. These observations warrant the need to compare their state of democratic elections and explore why Tanzania earned a low democratic performance in its 2020 elections compared to Ghana and South Africa. The Most Similar Systems Design was used in case selection. The methodologies applied are secondary qualitative research. Findings indicate that Tanzania's level of democracy in its 2020 elections was low compared to South Africa (2019) and Ghana (2020). This is due to the number of challenges that Tanzania faced in its 2020 elections compared to Ghana and South Africa. Challenges range from the design of an electoral legal framework to the election administration. Recommendations for improving democracy in Tanzanian future elections are also provided.