Decoding the Ballot: - How Might AI Reshape Democracy on the African

RIA’s dynamic and evolving research agenda examines the uneven distribution of the benefits and harms of the intensifying global processes of digitalisation and datafication. [...] The quality of the underlying structure of democracy in Africa is a primary contributing factor in this regard with the justness of elections determined by the quality and freedom of information available to the citizenry. [...] Examples include the formation of algorithmic political cultures, the reformation of the digital public sphere, the translation of electoral strategy into computationally optimised rhetorical appeals, the rapid dissemination of visual propaganda on platforms, micro-targeted political advertisements, frequent data breaches that violate rights to privacy, and the ease of amplifying the range of info. [...] The report was instrumental in highlighting that many of the issues attributed to the internet and social media – such as extreme polarisation of democratic politics; decline in trust in governments, traditional media, and fellow citizens; partisan media; and the spread of disinformation – predate the rise of social media and the internet. [...] 10 2.3 The structures of African political systems The end of the Cold War and the rise of global neoliberalism stimulated forces for change which in turn allowed “the long suppressed democratic aspirations of Africans to rise to the surface” (Fomunyoh 2005, 13).