In an article penned for the Foreign Policy journal, Jeffrey Smith, director of non-profit Vanguard Africa, and Tutu Alicante, executive director of non-profit EG Justice, claimed last month more than 100 individuals, including lawyers, judges, and civil society and political opposition activists, had been arbitrarily detained, amid reports of torture and killings.

Jeffrey Smith, the head of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit organization that works on issues related to free and fair election and ethical leadership, said Obiang uses the election to show how popular he is in the country but instills fear in his people to remain in power.

“There’s a significant – and some could argue growing – chasm between rhetoric and reality,” says Jeffrey Smith, the founder of Vanguard Africa, a US consultancy that represents African opposition figures such as Uganda’s Bobi Wine and Martin Fayulu of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I think that’s always a problem, because then America’s detractors can point to that very void, and they’re not wrong about that.”

According to our information, Martin Fayulu will ask members of the American Congress and the administration of Joe Biden that Washington closely follow the evolution of the situation of this strategic country of central Africa and contribute to guarantee free and fair elections in 2023. The United States had played a key role in the outcome of the December 2018 presidential election by supporting the victory of Félix Tshisekedi despite the fact that numerous irregularities had been denounced. Fayulu is determined to prevent history from repeating itself.

The major issues that Fayulu is expected to address in Washington, DC include “the current domestic situation, the many humanitarian emergencies, economic and political challenges, as well as the environment as it pertains to next year’s elections, which he views as very critical,” says African democracy activist Jeffrey Smith. Smith is helping to organize the trip as part of his firm Vanguard Africa’s contract to manage an “independent free and fair campaign” in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

18 months since his defeat in Uganda’s tainted presidential election, Bobi Wine is the one touring the world as his global stardom reaches new heights.

With elections scheduled for next year, Zimbabwe’s opposition and pro-democracy organizations are expressing concerns about recent appointments to the country’s electoral commission. For example, Jeffrey Smith, founder of pro-democracy outfit Vanguard Africa, believes free and fair elections in Zimbabwe remain elusive.

On the show this week, Marie-Noelle Nwokolo and pro-democracy activist Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, interrogate the role and relevance of election observer missions in light of Kenya’s recent election. Listen in on a candid conversation complementing processes in the quest to build substantive democracies.

I reached out to Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, to ask how it was going on election day. He and his team were monitoring polls in Kisumu, another hot spot for election violence in the past. “Some minor issues but nothing newsworthy or ominous yet,” he replied.

Jeffrey Smith, the Washington-based founding director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy advocacy organization, says he finds Western inaction frustrating. “Museveni and the military regime have very carefully used the security question in Uganda as a cudgel to metaphorically bang the heads of U.S. policymakers into line,” he said.