The Institute has conducted extensive research in Zambia and Botswana, including through our participation in the Zambia and Botswana Election Research Networks (ZERN and BERN respectively). ZERN – which is a collaboration with the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) in Lusaka and researchers elsewhere – organized studies of the 2016 and 2021 elections in Zambia. Research on the 2021 elections, which resulted in a change of government, was published in a special issue of the Journal of East African Studies, guest-edited by the Institute’s Hangala Siachiwena  and Sishuwa Sishuwa (together with Nicole Beardsworth from Wits). Preparations began in 2025 for research on the 2026 elections in Zambia. ZERN held a research planning workshop in Lusaka in July 2025, began to collect data in selected parliamentary constituencies and through a pre-election telephonic survey.

Our research on the October 2024 elections in Botswana – which resulted in the country’s first change of government since Independence – has been conducted with scholars from the University of Botswana through BERN. Successful research workshops were held outside Gaborone in April and September 2025. A set of papers is to be published as the 2025 volume of Botswana Notes and Records. This is the first-ever book-length study of electoral politics in Botswana. Papers drew on both quantitative and qualitative data to examine aspects of the background to the elections, parties’ candidate selection and campaigns, and the factors influencing voter turnout and choice. 

Martin Oswald is completing his PhD thesis on turnout in Tanzania. Rui Tyitende has begun work on his PhD on ethnicity and politics in Namibia.

The Institute has hosted workshops on elections in other countries across Southern Africa, including Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. The Institute also co-hosts the Political Parties in Africa project, which has organized annual online conferences since 2020. Much of the new research on political parties in Africa was first discussed in these conferences. The conferences have been organized by Sarah Lockwood (Honorary Research Affiliate) together with Matthias Krönke (who was a PhD student until 2023).