Diasporas Electoral Politics for Democratic Change

• In Event: Social Movements, Technology, and Political Participation

Abstract

In a time when the decline of voter turnout at the polls is put forward as a political challenge in many democracies, it seems vital to rethink the relationships between change in political participation and the political relationship to the ballot box. The 2018 presidential election in Cameroon was one of the most special ones. Beyond a reckless and highly expressive transnational public space, the 2018 electoral presidential competition in Cameroon for the command seat has turned into a tremendous post-electoral crisis that has led to political arrests and policy measures beyond Cameroon. Research on political engagement has undergone several evolutions since the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the advent of digital social networks in the Western world in the early 1990s and later in Africa in the early 2000s. Authors agree on the plurality of types of online electoral politics in Western societies as well as in Africa. However, African authors studying the African context insist on the democratic opportunistic dimension of digital platforms because they enhance free debates and information sharing in ordinary contexts and visualise the problematisation of public life.
Furthermore, the authors agree that social networks transform participatory democracy in Africa while putting forward relevant tools for implementing democratic values, such as the political engagement of young citizens and famous voices. The Internet is akin to a popular strategy that makes the needs of the people visible but mainly works as an instrument through which political actors fight against dictatorships. In French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in countries such as Cameroon and the Ivory Coast, activists use digital social networks to circumvent legal and political barriers imposed by laws on citizenship, electoral participation, and international geographical boundaries. Changes are acknowledged in digital practices and increase the visibility of the role of international media, opposition and diasporas. This paper studies Cameroon's online diaspora struggling to create political change in presidential election times. In particular, the paper integrates their bottom-up policies on using digital technology in the presidential electoral context in 2018 by applying in-depth qualitative methods based on direct observation interviews and open conversations. The paper shows the intricate relationship between diaspora activists' online electoral political strategy and the political relationship to the ballot boxes through the study of meaning in practice and their effects on the political system. Staging and virtual self-presentation, solo dialogues, simulations of change, digital imaginaries, and the use of political pseudonyms appear as critical dimensions of online political practices.

Author

• Mireille Manga, University of Yaounde II, Cameroon