How will African citizens be safe from COVID-19 during elections?

By Sethi Ncube, allAfrica.com

At least 22 countries in Africa will be organizing polls this year, 13 of which will be for the positions of president or prime minister.

Burundi is holding large election rallies and will hold general elections on May 20, while Malawi votes in July, which presumes that both preparations and campaigns will take place during the COVID-19 crisis. 

So why are these countries not being advised to postpone elections?

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government has sidelined the World Health Organisation, declaring the organisation’s representatives persona non grata. 

Only 27 citizens were confirmed as having COVID-19, but doctors and nurses in Bujumbura — the country’s largest city — told The New Humanitarian they are treating many more patients with the virus.

However, WHO says it is not discouraging elections but is advising that any gathering of people needs to be carried out with physical barriers and distancing among the people involved.

“This would require the type of logistics, forward planning, monitoring how people are gathering, distributing the masks largely free of charge so that people can get them,” says Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa (WHOAfro). 

“People can understand that even as they gather for this purpose, or for any others, it is very important for them to make sure that this event does not then become an occasion for the virus to spread further in the population.”

Handling the COVID-19 outbreak also brought some trouble for Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, who is facing his first election since being chosen as the country’s leader 5 years ago. 

Magufuli is being described a tyrant by the opposition, who say information is being controlled and that the alleged withholding the true number of people with the novel Coronavirus is an election tactic by the president.

In Malawi, as soon as presidential candidates presented their nomination papers to the Electoral Commission (MEC), some of the strict measures — keeping social distance; avoiding mass gatherings and staying at home — that were set in declaring a State of Disaster, have been flouted as the candidates are organizing mass political rallies ahead of the July 2 fresh presidential elections.

This utter disregard to the dangers associated with mass gatherings where infections can easily be passed on has been criticized by the public as well as CSOs and other stakeholders as this sends wrong signals to people who might decide not serious take some of the preventive measures.

The first presentation of nomination papers at Mount Soche Hotel  in Blantyre by the electoral alliance of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM Party on May 6, started over 30 minutes late because the MEC Commissioners were refusing to enter a congested hall.

Prior to the presentation exercise, MEC had stressed that the parties and candidates were only supposed to send 20 delegates but on this day, the hall was contaminated by other unaccredited officials and supporters, prompting the Commissioners to refuse to enter the hall to administer the process.

Outside the hotel and in the streets, thousands of supporters had gathered and as soon as the exercise was done, MCP president Lazarus Chakwera and his running mate Saulos Chilima went on a motorcade parade along streets of Blantyre passing through Ndirande where they drew mass gatherings to take a glimpse of them.

The next day was the same during the turn of the president of Democratic Progress Party (DPP) Peter Mutharika and his running mate Atupele Muluzi of the United Democratic Party (UDF) but sanity had been restored in the hall as there was a sizable number of delegates.

But these two also went on a motorcade parade and also passed through Ndirande — equally drawing large crowds.

Atupele went on a whistle stop of tour last Saturday from Blantyre to Mangochi, stopping at Thondwe, Zomba City central, Chinamwali Namwera Turn-off, Liwonde and Ulongwe to finish with a mass rally at Mangochi Boma.

The next day he visited Ntcheu and also attracted mass gatherings while Chakwera and Chilima held their mass rally in Mzuzu also on Sunday.

All these leaders have been advocating for the public to take the preventive measures seriously but they are the same who are flouting it.

When announcing the official launch of the campaign period on May 2 that will run for 30 days to end on June 30, MEC chairperson Justice Jane Ansah SC asked all candidates to find other innovative ways of reaching out to the electorate considering that this will be done during the COVID-19 pandemic.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira