HIV/AIDS threatens to undermine democracy

HIV/AIDS may pose a serious threat to South Africa's young democracy in elections to come, according to a study just released by the Governance and AIDS Programme (GAP) of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA).

The ongoing study began a year ago, with the objective of providing a detailed analysis on the impact of HIV/AIDS on electoral processes. It questioned whether there were any indications that the epidemic could undermine democracy and the legitimacy of future ballots.

A concern raised by the research was that most of those infected with HIV fall within the age range of eligible voters, affecting the credibility of the voters' roll, the ability of sick people living with AIDS to get to a polling station, and the likelihood that, on election day, caregivers would have to forfeit their vote to look after the ill.

Other Southern African countries are also experiencing the repercussions of the crisis.

"The impact of HIV/AIDS has forced electoral management bodies to face a number of problems regarding the voters' roll. The number of registered voters on the voters' roll is not a true reflection of what's happening on the ground. Our voters' rolls are bloated with dead voters," said a report on Malawi to a regional electoral commissioners' forum, held last year by IDASA and the UN Development Programme.

Women in particular risked disenfranchisement, as they were most affected by the epidemic, the research suggested. Young voters infected with HIV could also become disillusioned with the democratic process if little action to address the epidemic was taken by the government.

"The right to vote imposes positive obligations on the state to ensure the right is fulfilled - this is how the constitutional court has interpreted the role of the state," one of the IDASA study researchers, Ann Strode, a senior law lecturer at South Africa's University of Natal, told PlusNews.

Ensuring that mechanisms for special voting for the ill and infirm were working was essential, as was tackling the apathy of young voters infected with HIV, or those with AIDS.

According to a report prepared by the South African Department of Public Service and Administration, by 2011 about 28 percent of skilled workers would be infected with HIV.

South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) would have to compensate for that loss, while continuing to provide a credible service.

"Democracy is all about participation, and the IEC has an ongoing role to play to ensure that people know how to vote, what is required of them to vote, where to vote and why they must vote. Special voting must be made available, in certain circumstances, so that special people are treated specially, to ensure an equal outcome," Strode said.

At the level of political party organisation, Ruth Rabinowitz of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) told IDASA researchers that her party had suffered, as members and leaders in the local structures had died of AIDS-related illnesses. Although the process for replacing them was functioning, the IFP was finding that its leadership was increasingly inexperienced.

According to researcher Dr Per Strand, a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Social Science at the University of Cape Town, the African Christian Democratic Party had noted that the sheer number of burials their Christian leaders were performing was undermining their ability to campaign.

"This study is discovering the early signs that democracy and the electoral processes will be undermined in the future if people don't listen and act now. The IEC has confirmed that they have plans in place to cope with the concerns the study is raising. If they don't, the staff they need for 2009 will be highly problematic, and it will be harder to maintain the same standard because of these factors putting the legitimacy of the process into question," said Strand.