All over the world, leaders are being turfed out of office—or at least being reminded that they can’t hold on to it forever.
Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, recently tried to win the right to stand for a fourth term. He has been a very successful president, but the voting public has had enough of a good thing, and he narrowly lost the referendum that would have let him go on.
In Jamaica, a successful government has just been voted out. Debt restructuring and economic growth was not enough for those who wanted fairer distribution of wealth. Jamaica’s relative stability owes something to changes in government: Administration after administration fails, but being able to vote in a free and fair election sustains the hope of better things to come and staves off despair and cynicism.
There have been elections in Africa as well. Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou almost won a second term outright. But even though his closest opponent, a former parliamentary speaker named Hama Amadou, was imprisoned on baby-trafficking charges, Issoufou was forced into a run-off, capturing only 48 percent of the vote while Amadou secured 18 percent from prison.
