In recent years many African nations that had moved toward instituting more democratic principles have started shedding them. Some nations seem to be keeping up appearances, putting into place new presidential term limits that are even endorsed by their long-serving leaders. But these longtime presidents keep winning election after election. Observers have criticized these elections as nothing more than pageantry. The outcomes, they say, are decided before the first ballot is cast.

Voters in the Republic of Congo will go to the polls on March 20 in an election that many candidates have decided to boycott because of accusations the vote is rigged to favor President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who has been in power since 1997. His first stint as president stretched from 1979 to 1992, when he was ousted in the nation’s first-ever multiparty election. Now, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso is vying for a third consecutive term in office after a change to the country’s constitution that, among other things, eliminated an age limit for the presidency, allowing him to run for re-election.

Voters in Rwanda last year rolled back term limits, allowing President Paul Kagame to theoretically stay in power until 2034. Ninety-eight percent of voters backed the necessary change to Rwanda’s Constitution. Opposition leaders fear President Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo will push to change the Constitution and run for a third term in elections later this year.

Africa is not the only continent where term limits are in retreat. In Ecuador last year, lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment that would eventually allow President Rafael Correa to run for the office again after his term expires, though he is barred from seeking another consecutive term in 2017 elections. In Nicaragua, lawmakers in 2014 got rid of presidential term limits, allowing President Daniel Ortega to remain in power indefinitely. But in Bolivia, an effort by Evo Morales to stay in power was recently rebuffed.

Pro-democracy groups have long assailed the notion of constitutional changes that allow for long stretches in office, saying they lead to corruption and worse.