Many Africans not confident in elections

Many people in sub-Saharan African countries say they're skeptical about the honesty of the electoral process, a Gallup survey shows. Across 19 countries, a median of 41 percent of those old enough to vote who were surveyed said they had confidence in the honesty of elections in their country. Majorities said they had confidence in the elections in Burundi, 82 percent; Ghana, 75 percent; Guinea, 70 percent; Mauritius, 68 percent; Djibouti, 58 percent, and Nigeria, 51 percent. Among those where the fewest said they had confidence in the honesty of elections were Zambia, 22 percent; Comoros, 24 percent; Kenya, 27 percent; Zimbabwe, 29 percent; Republic of the Congo, 31 percent; Democratic Republic of the Congo, 33 percent, and Uganda, 36 percent. By comparison, only about 20 percent of those more than 18 years old surveyed in Russia said they had confidence in the honesty of elections there and 47 percent in the United States, Gallup said. Results for the African survey are based on face-to-face interviews conducted with at least 600 adults in each of 19 sub-Saharan African countries. The margin of error ranges from 3.3 percentage points to 4.3 percentage points.