Latin America - electoral experiences in 2020-2021

By Guery Marañón

Organizing elections is always a complex process that requires experience, work under pressure and preparation for possible crises. However, as covid-19 was something completely new for the world, it became difficult to control, and many electoral institutions were unable to organize elections on the scheduled date. Speaking specifically about electoral processes in Latin America since the beginning of the pandemic, around 20 elections have been organized in 13 countries. The last ones were held this year in Nicaragua (November 21), Chile (November 21) and Honduras (November 28). Elections in the region allowed countries to define their future, either by electing their authorities (with the enormous criticism that some countries such as Venezuela and Nicaragua had) or by marking structural changes (such as Chile’s plebiscite in 2020). The pandemic forced the electoral authorities to adapt the elections to COVID, a job that was not easy and had both positive and negative results. The pandemic took everyone by surprise. The levels of contagion in Latin American countries, daily deaths and ignorance of the characteristics of COVID transmission made governments prioritize other needs of citizens, momentarily putting aside democratic procedures. In addition to social pressure to preserve health, electoral institutions had to invest more resources in the acquisition of biosafety materials for precincts and for electoral personnel. In other cases, the voting method was changed to enforce social distancing and avoid contagion. As a result, in 2020, seven Latin American countries had to change the initial dates of their elections: Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Brazil. The Bolivian case should be highlighted, since it changed the date of its presidential elections on two occasions (initially on May 3, then on September 6 and finally on October 18) due to the evolution of the pandemic in that country.

Insecurity in the pandemic: will I get it?

The main problem when organizing an election in a pandemic was the fear of contagion. Alarming numbers of the deceased were in the news daily. Many citizens lost family and friends due to COVID. Fear gripped everyone, so convincing people that they could vote without getting infected was the biggest challenge. The Dominican Republic had a negative result considering that, after a strong campaign by the electoral body, the percentage of participation obtained in its July 2020 presidential election was one of the lowest in its history: 55.29%. Therefore; was it possible that there could be a high citizen participation in the face of a health crisis? The answer may be yes. The Bolivian case is the most illustrative. The then president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Bolivia (TSE), Salvador Romero, mentioned that the Bolivian elections of 2020 were the most difficult in the country’s democratic history. To begin with, the country was in an extreme political crisis after the annulled elections of October 20, 2019, which put a lot of pressure on the electoral institution as citizens demanded to have a legitimately elected government in the shortest possible time. Secondly, the high polarization in the society that came into protests after the election date had to be changed twice. Finally, the epidemiological crisis due to COVID-19. After an intense information campaign on the new voting procedure, the health security measures and emotional messages of reconciliation with the slogan “The vote is the embrace of the union”, Bolivia was able to achieve one of the best indexes of citizen participation on October 18, 2020: 88.42%.

Voting with paper: is it reliable?

Latin America has an important tradition of paper voting. For many people, it is considered the most reliable way to verify the results of an election and thus avoid suspicion of fraud. Despite technological advances in the region, paper voting continues to be the preferred method, with some exceptions such as Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador. Beyond the permanence of traditional methods, there was a country that dared to innovate in times of pandemic. On June 6, 2021 the federal and local elections were held in Mexico, and citizens abroad were authorized to vote. To guarantee the exercise of their political rights, regardless of the state of the pandemic in their countries of residence, the National Electoral Institute (INE) implemented for the first time the online voting, which was an unprecedented event in the region. In order to use this new voting mechanism, Mexicans living abroad had to log in on the INE portal to verify that they lived abroad and were registered to vote. The electoral institution would then approve their request and give each citizen a unique username and password. On election day, voters could view their virtual ballots on their computer screen.

Dangerous election campaigns

The election campaigns in Latin America generally happen on the streets, particularly at rallies and large candidate presentation events with musical groups and shows. These great campaigning acts continued despite sanitary restrictions and had evident consequences on political organizations. For example, five candidates died during the election campaign for regional and local elections in Bolivia in 2021, four of them due to COVID. The same happened in Brazil, a country in which 20 candidates died. To that number must be added the 82 deaths of candidates and militants who were shot dead during the campaign period. Although political parties and candidates use and have used digital marketing to reach potential followers, it is not a frequent practice due to the low internet penetration rates in the region. Nevertheless, due to the restrictions imposed by national governments, political parties were forced to innovate their election campaigns. Most of the candidates opted for the use of new technologies, mainly Facebook as a platform to proselytize. A notorious case, although not with positive results, was the candidate Cinthi Fernández in Argentina. She went viral by posting a video on her social media dancing (half-naked) tango in front of the congress as part of her campaign to be a deputy in the Open, Simultaneous and Obligatory Primaries (PASO).

Fake news in times of pandemic

Fake news and misinformation are common during election periods. In a majority of the cases, this content focussed on candidates and political parties. However, the experiences in Latin America showed that disinformation has also occurred in issues pertaining to the work of electoral institutions. Due to the increase in online users during the pandemic, this kind of information increased during 2020 and 2021. None of the electoral processes was compromised by disinformation, but the work of Brazil and Peru can be highlighted. Brazil was a country that dedicated a lot of effort to combat disinformation. With the hashtags “#EuVotoSemFake” (I vote without fake) and #NãoTransmita- FakeNews (Do not share fake news), the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) generated a large amount of information through strategic alliances. One of the most important partnerships was the creation of ambassadors (influencers and well-known people in the country) who transmitted the message of consuming news from journalistic sources, not believing everything that comes out on social networks and always with the verification on portals if there are doubts. The most innovative element was the alliance with the Brazilian Soccer Federation and the Brazilian professional soccer teams, which together showed false messages and their clarification by relating this practice to what the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) does in conventional soccer matches.

The Peruvian case is just as remarkable, since the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) put many resources into the administration of its social networks, mainly Twitter. On this platform, the Peruvian Community Managers identified the messages that misinformed the public and retweeted them giving the official information. At the same time, citizen inquiries were answered throughout the election period. The Peruvian case is important considering the political crisis in the country (Peru had a power vacuum after the resignation of four consecutive presidents. Its election was closely contested, so the amount of disinformation increased notably). Although life is gradually returning to normal and little by little we are resuming our activities, the electoral work is not over and it will have to continue adapting to the pandemic. In 2022, at least five elections will take place in Latin America, with those in Colombia and Costa Rica being the most important since they must elect their respective presidents. With so many unknowns - if there will be additional waves of the pandemic, if there will be infrastructure enough to make voting safe - will there be new experiences to analyze? Time will tell.♦