It is much easier for an incumbent to win an election in most parts of the world. In instances where the incumbent is considered a good leader by the public, he/she does not have to work hard to retain his/her position. According to Teixeira and Halpin (Teixeira, R., & Halpin, J., 2012), after Obama’s first term, Americans believed that his leadership would help them achieve a progressive policy change hence his re-election.
As for incompetent leaders, re-election may be a difficult task. Some resort to engaging in unfair practices to win. The most common practice used widely by leaders around the world is gerrymandering. It is a practice that is used to provide a political advantage to a particular group or party. According to Friedman and Holden (Friedman J. N., 2009), partisan gerrymandering entails redrawing civil lines in the kindness of the partisan party, while obligatory gerrymandering involves redrawing margins in a two-party method to benefit officials from both sides. The writers believe that gerrymandering can be a contributing factor for the re-election of an incumbent.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Some incumbents resort to election manipulation. According to Jabloski et al. (2015), election manipulation techniques such as fraud, violence, and manipulation are widely used by incumbents. Election manipulation is dangerous ground. It may involve harm to the people of the opposing side and the author, Jabloski et al. (2015), site instances where incumbents have vowed to use violence to retain their positions. President Lukashenko of Belarus swore to "break the neck-like a duckling" of any demonstrator after a corrupt election in 2006. Jabloski et al. (2015) believes that governments seeking to rig elections always employ a various way of election manipulation
References
Friedman, J. N., & Holden, R. T. (2009). The rising incumbent re-election rate: What's Gerrymandering got to do with it?. The Journal of Politics , 71 (2), 593-611.
Hafner-Burton, E. M., Hyde, S. D., & Jablonski, R. S. (2015). Surviving elections: Election violence, incumbent victory, and post-election repercussions. Incumbent Victory, and Post-Election Repercussions (August 10, 2015) .
Teixeira, R., & Halpin, J. (2012). The Obama Coalition in the 2012 Election and Beyond. Center for American Progress , 18.
