People queue in the street outside the South African High Commission in central London on May 18, 2024, to vote in South Africa's forthcoming general election. (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP)
Get used to it: more and more election results around the world will be questioned as voter turnout dips significantly.
According to a report released yesterday on the state of democracy – conducted by Stockholm-based intergovernmental organisation International Idea – “between 2008 and 2023, global voter turnout fell by 10 percentage points, from 65.2% to 55.5%”.
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Almost half of the 173 countries covered by the think-tank show “a very severe decline in at least one absolutely crucial element of democracy” – either to hold credible elections or freedom of the press.
The report revealed when “political leaders refuse to recognise the credibility of an election or take the initiative of challenging it in court, it sends an important signal to voters”.
“In some cases, such signals convey legitimate concerns about an election; in others, they are cynical attempts to erode public faith in an opponent’s victory.”
When you think half the world will have had the chance to go to the polls in 2024, it is hugely concerning that democracies are slowly eroding.
We would do well to heed the words of Guatemalan human rights activist and Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum: “Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.”
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