Write an article about the topic "elections held during the pandemic"
word limit ( 150 )
Answers
Answer:
FEATURES | POLITICS
Elections in a Pandemic: Lessons From Asia
Mongolia, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea prove that COVID-19 elections are possible, but difficult.
By Adhy Aman
August 05, 2020
Elections in a Pandemic: Lessons From Asia
A voter stands in front of a ballot machine as election observers watch in the background at a polling station in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on June 24, 2020.
Credit: AP Photo/Khurelkhuu Enkhjargal
One of the cascading effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been its impact on democracies. Some countries have pushed ahead with elections — Sri Lanka, for example, just held their already postponed legislative elections on August 5. Days before that, however, Hong Kong, announced it would postpone its Legislative Council elections by a year, citing the impact of COVID-19.
Health and safety concerns remain as dominant factor in deciding whether or not elections should be conducted during the pandemic. As International IDEA’s Global Overview on the impact of COVID-19 on elections shows, two in three countries scheduled to hold elections in 2020 have decided to postpone them. Among more than 50 countries that have gone ahead to hold elections during the pandemic, nine of them are in Asia. This article looks at four: Mongolia, Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore.
These four countries held elections of varying levels and therefore, magnitudes over a three-week span from late June to early July: Mongolia held their parliamentary elections on June 24; followed by a State Assembly by-election on July 4 in Pahang, Malaysia; a gubernatorial election in Tokyo, Japan on July 5; and finally, the parliamentary elections in Singapore on July 10. While these elections are not the same in scope, it is still interesting to examine them and compare how they were conducted, given the similar threats the pandemic poses for the health and safety of voters and election officials alike.