The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Argentine electoral integrity

RATTO, MARÍA CELESTE; CAROLINA VERENA FRANCO HÄNTZSCH

virtual

Jornada; July 2022 International EIP Workshop ? The Electoral Integrity Project EIP; 2022

Elections are the core of democracies. Although progress has been made throughoutthe history of democracies, still remain huge differences in the quality andinclusiveness of elections around the world (Norris 2014, 2015; James and Garnett2020; Norris and Grömping, 2017). Problems of democratic elections involve a ‘menuof manipulation’ which ranges sequentially from restrictions on the range of electoraloffices through the formation and expression of preferences to the consequences ofvoting choice. Breaking any single link in the chain is capable of undermining thelegitimacy of elections (Schendler 2002, and Norris 2013).The Covid-19 pandemic added enormous difficulties to democracies of the worldaffecting its electoral integrity. Governments addressed enormous challenges duringCOVID-19, such as learning to coexist in the new pandemic circumstances, andadapting a large part of rules and procedures to the health emergency. Democraticcontinuity has been one of these enormous challenges. Governments had toimplement extreme measures to protect their populations, and at the same timecomply with the procedures that sustain these democratic agreements. Holdingelections in the context of a pandemic was a test to institutional consolidation. Incountries with a shorter democratic experience, such as Argentina, where recenthistory has shown episodes of political and economic instability, holding elections in apandemic was a huge challenge that could either have strengthened democraticarrangements or generated a backslide.This case study describes the challenges faced by Argentina, its dilemmas and thesolutions implemented to hold the 2021 elections in the context of the Covid-19pandemic. This paper is an attempt to contribute to the understanding of the effectthat the Covid-19 pandemic had on the electoral cycle and on the electoral integrity ofArgentina. To adress such aims, I will study the 8 stages of the Argentine electoral cycleand I will carry out an expert survey in order to evaluate the electoral integrity of the2021 Argentinean election process. The results of the expert survey will be comparedwith the previous measurements for Argentina and thus I will draw conclusions thatallow me to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Argentine democracy.