After his chaotic inauguration ceremony on 7 January, new President John Agyekum Kufuor has earned the local sobriquet of 'Jak'. With a transition period of just eight days...

The stunning victory of President Laurent Koudou Gbagbo's Front Populaire Ivoirien in the parliamentary elections on 10 December settles nothing. In many respects, it makes matters worse. Even...

Opposition politicians brim with confidence after the 7 December elections gave the New Patriotic Party 99 seats in the 200-seat parliament against 92 for the incumbent National Democratic...

Are relations improving between Gambia and the Commonwealth? In 1995, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) was set up to look at members' attitudes to democracy.

Desperation and nostalgia help explain why more than 5,000 Sierra Leoneans crowded in to the National Stadium in Freetown on 23 November to show their support for British...

It seems that troops loyal to President Kumba Yala killed self-proclaimed Chief of Staff General Ansumane Mane in an ambush about 30 kilometres from the capital, Bissau, on...

One of Ghana's experienced political observers recently confided to a friend in Accra: 'For the first time in this country, I have no idea what is going to...

The seven presidential candidates and parties contesting the 7 December elections offer an odd mix of professed ideologies and political histories. For 50 years, Ghanaian political allegiance has...

On 6 November, a new prime minister, Ernest Yonli, took over from the respected but hamstrung technocrat Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo. His first big difficulty was to find enough...

Prime Minister Moustapha Niasse is getting ready to resign, probably before the constitutional referendum due on 7 January.