There are more than twenty countries scheduled to hold elections in Africa in 2020. This raises complex and difficult questions such as do we encourage countries to proceed with elections at the risk of increasing the spread of COVID-19, or do we ask countries to postpone elections at the risk of creating potential unintended constitutional and/or political tensions.
Generally, electoral processes are already an involved endeavor! Electoral processes include campaigns by a multitude of political parties, the registration of voters and the preparation of voter’s rolls, civic and voter education, as well as mass gatherings in the form of political party rallies. All of these election processes have been affected by the spread of COVID-19 on the continent and the measures implemented to contain the spread of the virus. Whichever way we look at this complex situation, we cannot deny the fact that the disruptions to the normal activities relating to electoral planning processes caused by COVID-19, force us to consider a number of challenges.