For the second day in a row, the Trump administration has weighed in on the importance of free and fair elections—in Africa. The warnings, apparently not meant to be ironic, came despite the fact that president himself declared premature victory before all the ballots were counted in U.S. elections, implying that counting all the ballots after the polls have closed is somehow akin to election fraud.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the U.S. was “deeply concerned by reports of election irregularities, politically motivated arrests, and violence” in what at first sounded like a reference to elections at home but what was in fact a warning to Tanzania. On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy to the Ivory Coast tweeted a similar warning, asking leaders there to “show commitment to the democratic process and the rule of law” and to “engage in inclusive dialogue to find peaceful solutions to their disagreements and to heal national divisions.” The embassy went on to suggest that the country’s leaders “renew dialogue to preserve social cohesion and to take the necessary steps to guarantee inclusion to create a climate of confidence capable of guaranteeing peace and stability.”
