Behind the Project

About This Project

An Exploration Of West African Election Policy

Since its conception, the West African Economic & Monetary Union (WAEMU) has based itself on a mutual economic interest among its 8 member states to foster a forum for the exercise of democracy and regional cooperation. However, the interconnectivity of the region created a suitable environment for a cascade effect in which democratic instability in a country becomes a blueprint for the adjacent nations. Behind The Ballot aims to dissect the main events surrounding election policy and power transitions including elections, policies, uprisings, coups d’etat, and conflicts in the last 12 years in the eight member countries of the WAEMU: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivoire, Guine-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Through the use of local, regional, and international newspapers, this project presents eight timelines of the major events from 2012 to 2024 in these countries. Furthermore, Behind the Ballot introduces a selection of interactive maps that display the intricacies of the processes while raising questions and discussions about voter suppression, economics, neocolonialism, and the future of West African democracy.

SOURCES

Meet the Editor

Fatou Ndiaye ’27

Fatou Ndiaye is a Mathematical Economics & Public Policy double major and an Africana Studies minor. Of Senegalese and Brazilian descent, Fatou’s main area of interest is economic policy and monetary policy. In Brazil, she works as an advocate for racial equity, and with more than 300K followers across all of her social media platforms, she engages with topics in international politics and economics, giving her perspectives on conflict, race, gender, the environment, and more. At Gettysburg College, she is part of the Eisenhower Scholars Program, Vice-President of the African Student Association, Treasurer of the Brazilian Student Association, Student Office Assistant for the Africana Studies Program, Research Intern for the Public Policy Department, Peer Learning Assistant for the Economics Department, and now a Digital Humanities Fellow.

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Acknowledgments