Challenges for Democracy during a Global Pandemic

Challenge: 

Parties that want to take part in upcoming elections have problems in gathering the necessary signatures for admission due to curfews and bans on large gatherings. In many cases, the signatures need to be collected physically and no digital provisions are available. In the worst case, certain parties will not be able to participate in the elections.

At the same time, intra-party decisions on for example the candidate list for elections are more difficult to reach due to the ban on gatherings.

Recommendations: 

Online registration to ensure social distanced voting such as was done in Iceland on 27 June 2020.If this approach is not possible in countries with large populations, mail-in voting should take place. This is being planned for the majority of citizens in the USA during the upcoming 2020 General Election. However, it requires proper infrastructure to ensure fair and proper vote counting. It is also important to ensure that citizens have equal access to ballots and know about the registration process for mail-in voting for the upcoming election.  Civil society organisations such as Voters not Politicians play a very important role in eliminating any gerrymandering and ensuring fair access to ballots acros the board. 

Parties should move their intra-party decision-making online. This was done by the European Parliament during the Covid-19 lockdown and ensured that important questions were deliberated and decisions were made. Therefore, parties should follow the same blueprint when making important decisions and putting candidates forward. 

Challenge:

Due to the restrictions on gatherings and in-person events, parties can have problems gathering donations. This especially the case for small parties who don't have an established financing base to fall back on.

Recommendations: 

Covid-19 should trigger a rethinking and reevaluation of the way in which campaign financing is approached. Transitioning to social media campaigning and fundraising is one way to do so.

During Covid-19,  many people have been supporting online crowdfunding causes. Crowdfunding has saved smaller businesses that have been struggling during the lockdown.  Therefore, this is an important avenue that smaller parties should pursue if they have any specific projects or campaigns that require financing. 

Challenge: 

Campaigns have to reorganise, orienting themselves mainly on individual communications (online or by mail) due to the restrictions on public life. This reorganisation is complex and expensive, while it can also be argued that online campaigning excludes large segments of citizens, while physical mail campaigning places a high financial burden on campaigns. Individual campaigning, excludes many opportunities for debate and exchange, which are an important element of our democratic system.

Restrictions on gatherings, make it difficult and expensive to organise information events that manage to follow all of the regulations in terms of social distancing.

Recommendations: 

Utilising the lack of mobility caused by lockdown to become more informed about the state of democracy and obstacles for democracy around the world.

Actively making use of pre-existing direct democracy tools to fight for even more direct democracy. 

Online information campaigns are a way for political parties of informing potential voters, but it is important that this remains as transparent as traditional campaigning such as leaflets and posters. This would require introducing a digital imprint for social media posts to track where information was sent from and by whom it was financed. 

Challenge: 

The crisis situation, rapidly changing events and imprecise communication give rise to uncertainty about the electoral process up until the last moment.

In some cases, electoral laws are changed quickly and without broad parliamentary discussion.

In certain cases elections and votes are postponed or cancelled without setting a new date.

Where votes are allowed to go ahead, often alternative or safe ways to vote are not in place: these can include voting by mail, voting digitally, or spreading out the vote over a longer period of time to avoid large crowds gathering at polling stations.

Where mail-in provisions exist, often the process to receive mail-in ballots is unnecessarily complicated or restrictive.

In many places, digital voting tools are not in place.

At the same time, some elections take place as postal votes exclusively.

Lacking provisions to ensure the safety of the citizens volunteering to manage polling stations and those who come to vote have been reported. Faulty communication on the safety measures in place, can lead to lower turnout, undermining the democratic value of the electoral process.

Recommendations: 

Greater digitalisation of the voting process (voter registration and access to information). 

The public should demand broad consensus between parties on how and when to hold elections, so that proper procedures are followed and citizens can participate easily.

Leaders should send out clear messages regarding mail-in votes, so that the citizens are aware of the steps they need to take to register and cast their votes. 

Civil Society should put pressure on governments to make sure that irregularities do not occur in relation to elections and voting during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Legislators should pass laws to make mail-in voting easier and accessible to all citizens. 

Federal governments should coordinate with local authorities to make information more readily available to citizens. 

There should be independent monitoring of elections.

Democracy should be about making the voice of the people heard. Therefore, more impetus should be provided for direct democracy, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis which has suppressed the voice of the people in many countries. If governments fail to recognise this fundamental underpinning of democracy, citizens should coordinate with civil society to push for a greater participatory role.