FAQ’S &
RESOURCES
What Is a Manifesto
When a political party publishes a manifesto, it is making a public commitment. Not to journalists. Not to donors. To citizens.
That means you have the right to return to it. Before you vote, to understand what a party stands for. After an election, to ask whether what was promised was delivered. In the next election cycle, to compare what was said with what was done.
This is how democratic accountability works. Not through opinion. Through record.
How to use the archive
You can explore the archive by country, by political party, or by election year. Each manifesto is preserved in its original form — the language, the layout, the source — exactly as it was published.
We do not summarise. We do not interpret. We do not paraphrase. The document you read here is the document the party published. What you make of it is entirely yours.
Why political memory matters
Across Africa, manifestos are difficult to find. Parties update their websites. Old documents disappear. Election seasons end and the promises made during them vanish from public view before the next cycle begins.
AfroManifesto exists because what was promised should not be easy to forget.
We preserve the record — and we make it accessible to anyone who wants to read it.
ABOUT MANIFESTOS
FAQ
Everything you need to know about manifestos, why they matter, and how to use this archive.
Why do political parties publish manifestos?
Publishing a manifesto is both a democratic tradition and, in many countries, a formal expectation of political participation. It is the mechanism through which a party communicates its vision to voters in a structured, accountable way.
A manifesto tells citizens what a party stands for before they are asked to vote for it. Without one, voters have only speeches, slogans, and secondhand reporting to rely on. A published manifesto gives citizens a direct, unmediated statement of intent.
Are manifestos legally binding?
In most African countries, manifestos are not legally enforceable contracts. However, they carry significant democratic weight. A manifesto is a public commitment made during an election campaign. Citizens, journalists, civil society organisations, and opposition parties can — and do — hold parties accountable to what was written in them.
The absence of legal enforceability makes the public record more important, not less. If promises can be quietly abandoned, the archive ensures they are not quietly forgotten.
Do all political parties publish manifestos?
Most parties contesting democratic elections publish some form of manifesto or policy platform. The depth, length, and accessibility of these documents varies significantly from comprehensive policy frameworks to shorter statements of intent.
Where a manifesto exists, AfroManifesto preserves it. Where one has not yet been submitted or located, the archive records that absence explicitly.
How is a manifesto different from a party's constitution or charter?
A party constitution or charter governs how the party is internally organised — its structures, membership rules, and decision-making processes. A manifesto is outward-facing. It is addressed to voters and describes what the party will do if given power. The two documents serve different purposes and are not substitutes for each other.
USING THE ARCHIVE
FAQ
The archive is organised three ways. By country, by political party, and by election year. Choose whichever entry point makes sense for what you are looking for.
Who is the AfroManifesto archive for?
The archive is built for anyone who believes that political promises should be part of the public record. That includes first-time voters trying to understand what parties stand for, experienced voters comparing a party’s current commitments with its history, journalists and researchers working on accountability or political analysis, civil society organisations monitoring party conduct, and educators looking for primary source material on African democratic politics.
You do not need an academic background or political expertise to use it. The documents are presented as published. What you do with them is entirely yours.
How do I use the archive to compare manifestos?
You can explore the archive by country, by political party, or by election year.
Browsing by party allows you to follow a single party’s manifesto history across multiple elections to see how its commitments, language, and priorities have shifted over time. Browsing by election year allows you to place a specific manifesto in its historical and regional context — to see what other parties across the continent were promising during the same period.
Does AfroManifesto evaluate or rank manifestos?
No. AfroManifesto is an archive, not an evaluator. We do not score manifestos. We do not endorse parties. We do not fact-check promises against outcomes or publish opinions on which party’s platform is strongest.
We preserve documents and make them accessible. The analysis, the comparison, and the judgement belong to the reader.
Does AfroManifesto cover all African countries?
The archive is growing. We currently hold manifestos from parties across multiple African countries and are actively expanding coverage to all 54 AU member states. Some countries have fuller coverage than others, depending on the availability of published documents and the submission of materials by parties, researchers, and contributors.
If your country is not yet well represented, you can help. See the Submit a Manifesto section to contribute documents to the archive.
How does AfroManifesto verify that a manifesto is authentic?
Every document in the archive is sourced and attributed. We record where the document came from, when it was obtained, and what form it was published in. We do not edit, summarise, or paraphrase. The document you access is the document as published by the party.
Where authenticity cannot be confirmed to our editorial standard, the document is not published. Where provenance is partial, that is noted explicitly alongside the document.
Can I submit a manifesto to the archive?
Yes. If you have access to a manifesto that is not yet in the archive — whether a historical document, a recently published platform, or a manifesto in a language currently underrepresented — we want to hear from you. Use the Submit a Manifesto form and include as much detail about the source as possible.
What does AfroManifesto do with submitted documents?
Submitted documents are reviewed by the AfroManifesto team against our editorial and authenticity standards before being added to the archive. We verify the source, confirm the document’s integrity, and record its provenance. Documents that meet our standards are published in the archive in their original form.
We do not use submitted documents for commercial purposes. The archive is a public resource.
Can I download manifestos?
Yes. Every manifesto in the archive is free to access and download. No registration required. The documents are preserved in their original form — the language, the layout, and the source exactly as published.
We do not use submitted documents for commercial purposes. The archive is a public resource.
ABOUT POLITICAL MEMORY
FAQ
Political promises are easy to make and easier to forget. Across Africa, manifestos disappear from public view within years of the elections they were written for. Parties update their websites. Old documents are removed. The record vanishes before the next cycle begins.
AfroManifesto exists because what was promised should remain on the record — permanently, and for everyone.
Why does political memory matter?
Political memory is the record of what was promised, what was decided, and what was done. Without it, accountability becomes guesswork. Citizens cannot evaluate their representatives against any fixed standard. Parties can revise history. Commitments can disappear without consequence.
Preserving political memory including the specific promises made before elections is a foundation of democratic accountability. It shifts the conversation from opinion to record.
Why are manifestos difficult to find in Africa?
Political parties routinely update their websites between election cycles. Old manifestos are removed, replaced, or allowed to expire from public access. In some cases, manifestos were never published digitally at all — only in print, at campaign events, or in languages with limited online presence.
The result is a significant gap in the public record. Documents that were published for citizens frequently become inaccessible to the same citizens within a few years of the election they were written for.
What happens when the record disappears?
When manifestos disappear, several things follow. Journalists cannot verify whether commitments were honoured. Civil society organisations lose a baseline for accountability reporting. Voters entering the electorate for the first time have no access to a party’s historical positions. Researchers and academics cannot analyse how political language and policy positions have evolved.
The loss of the record does not benefit citizens. It benefits those who made promises they would prefer not to be measured against.