This event examines the initial legal extension of voting rights to citizens abroad in sub-Saharan Africa.
Existing theories frame diaspora enfranchisement as a proactive policy choice; however, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and other formerly colonised regions, the relationship between states and citizens is often less stable than these arguments assume.
At the centre of the discussion is the broader question of the contested nature of who a national citizen is and the rights associated with it. In many sub-Saharan African countries, questions like these remain a source of contestation. The event introduces an additional mechanism linking periods of political liberalisation to the extension of diaspora voting rights: implicit enfranchisement through constitutional reforms that tie voting rights to national citizenship.
Drawing on event-history analysis, the discussion will highlight that a new constitution is the strongest indicator of the likelihood of adopting diaspora voting rights. Moreover, among the 40% of African countries that have adopted diaspora voting, the initial political actors who were legally extended were either constitutional assemblies, judiciaries, or international actors, groups relatively insulated from domestic political incentives. As citizenship has become the primary acceptable criterion for suffrage, it has opened the door to the inclusion of millions of citizens abroad.
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