WORLD Tour: A year of elections, upheavals, and challenges

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

ONIZE ODUAH: The past year brought more than 70 elections globally, with millions of voters heading to the polls. The votes brought some expected and unexpected changes.

AUDIO: Cheering crowds

India organized an elaborate electoral process that lasted six weeks and involved nearly 970 million registered voters. They cast their ballots for all of the more than 500 members of the country’s lower house of parliament.

Voters in South Africa also brought historic change as they removed the African National Congress party from office for the first time since the country gained its independence in 1994.

I spoke with Christopher Vandome a senior research fellow with the Chatham House Africa Program.

CHRISTOPHER VANDOME: That's what's really striking about this election and that's why it's been billed as the most contested election for 30 years. Pluralism in every form is kind of a new thing in South Africa and that's what's really exciting about this election.

And in Botswana, voters elected Duma Boko as president, ending the ruling party’s nearly six decades in power. Boko’s victory brought a seamless power shift welcomed on a continent that has seen some contentious handovers.

DUMA BOKO: Thank you very much. I am humbled to sit here. I accept it with humility. I accept it with some trepidation knowing that it’s a very very big assignment.

More elections are ahead … with voters in Belarus heading to the polls later this month. Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko will be running for a seventh term.

This year has also brought some political uncertainty beyond elections, In West Africa, military-led countries have distanced themselves from the regional bloc.

Back in January, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger announced their plans to withdraw from the regional Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. Their departure threatened to break apart the group, which provides some economic stability in the region.

By July, the countries organized the first summit of their new bloc: The Alliance of Sahel States.

Abdourahamane Tiani is Niger’s ruling general.

TIANI: [Speaking French]

He says here that the new alliance is the only way to tackle terrorism in the current geopolitical climate.

In December, ECOWAS gave the military leaders until next July to reconsider their membership. But they have said their decision is irreversible.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong continued to crack down on pro-democracy activists. In a significant November ruling, a court found 45 former lawmakers and activists guilty of subversion. Their prison sentences range from four to 10 years. Western governments and international rights organizations criticized the sentences as politically motivated.

Chris Tang is Hong Kong’s security secretary.

CHRIS TANG: [SPEAKING CANTONESE]

He says here that the sentences match the severity of the crimes … and show the city has zero tolerance for any acts endangering national security.

In many countries, Christians faced extra challenges this year.

In Rwanda, authorities are still enforcing regulations mandating churches to meet basic building standards and maintain sound regulations, among other requirements, in order to remain open.

Authorities shut down more than 56-hundred churches for failing to meet the regulations … after a five-year grace period.

Peter Gitau is the Central Africa regional administrator for Africa Inland Mission.

GITAU: No one is saying you cannot meet in each other's houses for fellowship. They're just saying, fix your fix your place. And you know you can meet there.

Meanwhile, Christians in Nicaragua face increasing pushback from President Daniel Ortega’s government. Authorities there have shut down thousands of churches and exiled many church leaders. The crackdown intensified after churches provided shelter for protesters back in 2018.

The targeted Christians include some 13 members of Mountain Gateway, a Texas-based evangelical ministry. Authorities released them along with other political and religious prisoners back in September.

Kristina Hjelkrem is a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom International … who represents Mountain Gateway.

HJELKREM: Of course from a human perspective we are really glad and grateful to God that these people are no longer deprived of their freedom for arbitrary and unjust reasons.

Despite this good news, the government is still suppressing religious freedom. Authorities ordered all Roman Catholic nuns to leave the country last month.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, Islamist insurgents and armed bandits have continued attacks on civilians. But Christians in northeast Nigeria are rejoicing after a judge acquitted a Christian woman of blasphemy charges last month.

Authorities detained Rhoda Jatau, a mother of five, two years ago for sharing a video that showed the lynching of a young Christian student. She was released on bail last December as her trial continued. Her case drew condemnation from international groups that also criticized the country’s blasphemy laws.

And finally, we wrap up in Syria, where a coalition of rebels has regained control of the country, bringing President Bashar al-Assad’s leadership to an end.

Hussein Abdul Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

HUSSEIN: So far the few days that have passed by, I think you know, things have been better when compared to other Arab Spring or Iraq War change, no looting, no burning, no breaking. But moving forward, I wish, I hope, that things continue going in this direction.

The return of an Islamist group to power has also raised concerns of what the future holds for Christians.

Martin Parsons is the CEO of the Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution.

He told WORLD last month that he’s not optimistic that Christians will stay safe for long.

PARSONS: We’re not going to see an immediate massacre of Christians, but we are going to see that tightening noose and we will see a few Syrian Christian leaders probably losing their lives, and it will get to the point where it will become—life will become intolerable for Christians in Syria.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.