African opposition success depends on alliances

Significance Opposition victories, especially those that remove long-standing authoritarian regimes, have been associated with democratic strengthening, with transfers of power shown to boost public support for democracy and demonstrate that the political elite is willing to share power, bolstering democratic norms and values. Impacts Evidence of further opposition victories will encourage authoritarian leaders to deploy more intense pre-election repression. Ruling parties at risk of losing polls may try to exploit the pandemic to postpone elections, especially in more authoritarian settings. While transfers of power have often strengthened democracy, they largely disrupt rather than bring an end to political corruption networks.