Electoral democracy and human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The outbreak of COVID-19 ominously heralded a health crisis across the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a public health emergency in January 2020 and the world became concerned with the havoc the disease would potentially cause. Though the pandemic was a health crisis, it posed a lethal challenge to shaky contemporary democracies across the world. Governments, including that of Zimbabwe, responded to the pandemic by enacting sweeping stringent lockdown regulations to control the spread of the disease. The regulations curtailed freedom of mobility, regulated public gatherings, and suspended electoral processes. This article looks at how the pandemic has been used to limit citizens’ civil liberties, erode the tenets of democracy, profoundly altered the pre-existing democratic trajectory, and entrenched the Zimbabwe state on the path of authoritarianism. Through a review of available secondary literature, the study systematically analysed the political developments as reported in electronic (including social media-twitter) and print media during the pandemic. The study established that the response by the Zimbabwe government to the COVID-19 pandemic compromised the security of persons, undermined democracy and electoral processes. The health crisis presented an opportunity for the consolidation of authoritarian rule.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• democracy
• human rights
• elections
• authoritarianism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edwin Yingi

Edwin Yingi is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of South Africa in the Department of Political Science. Edwin has published research articles in peer reviewed international journals. His research interests span over issues of climate change and its security implications in Africa. He is also interested in governance issues and how they contribute to sustainable peace.

Promise M. Hlungwani

Promise M. Hlungwani is an academic and researcher who focuses on public policy and development issues. He is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Public Management, Governance and Public Policy at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. His research interests include policy implementation, policy analyses and development challenges in the global south.