Abstract
There are six African small island developing states: the Union of the Comoros; the Republic of
Guinea‐Bissau; the Republic of Cabo Verde; the Republic of Mauritius; the Seychelles and the
Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. Apart from Mauritius, the other five states are
relatively new to democracy with several of these states only transitioning from one party states
to multi‐party states in the early 1990s. International and domestic observers declared the last
round of elections in all ASIDS free and fair, but this reveals little of the quality of elections in
these small island developing states. All six states are members of the African Union (AU) and
are therefore obliged to adhere to its election principles. Therefore, this article examines the
quality of elections in the ASIDS by analysing the extent to which they are free and fair using the
principles of the AU’s Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa.
Findings reveal that despite continued logistical and other problems that persist, the election
process is generally well managed and violence relatively minimal, a remarkable achievement
given the volatile political histories in all save one of these small island states. Challenges
appear to centre on continued inter‐institutional instability in some cases, failure to adhere to
constitutional amendments in others, some instances of continued harassment and a lack of
financial and technical resources, all of which have to some extent impacted electoral quality