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Locked down, locked up

Olivia Acland: Congo correspondent, The Economist, GOMA

Covid-19 will help unscrupulous incumbents in elections

Free and fair?

The pandemic means fewer eyes will be on them

IN UGANDA, WHERE a general election is scheduled to take place in February 2021,
authorities have banned rallies because of covid-19. Members of the opposition who
have flouted the ban have been arrested. But somehow Dicksons Kateshumbwa, a
candidate for the ruling National Resistance Movement party, simply cannot avoid
holding gatherings with hundreds of supporters. “It is because of my popularity,” he
says, “I cannot control the number of people.” Unsurprisingly, he gets away with it.

At least 18 African countries are expected to go to the polls in 2021 while the pandemic
smoulders across the continent. For presidents like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, who
prefer a pretence of democracy to the real thing, covid- 19 restrictions will offer more
ways to cheat. Not only will they have an excuse to break up opposition rallies, but
fewer eyes will be on them, as international election observers stay away.