Legislative election during pandemics. Challenges to democracies

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the democracies. A representative democracy is the favourite instrument in terms of expressing a people 's sovereign will. Any democratic system is based on free, periodical elections. The election procedure is the natural way in which peoples participate indirectly in political decision-making. The conduct of the election under special conditions, like the conditions the heath crisis imposed, had consequences, particularly in terms of legitimacy. The pandemic-affected countries have taken a number of measures to ensure safe voting to electors, though a number of shortcomings marked the organization and carrying on of the election processes, such as lack of funding, technical errors, quarantined people 's inability to vote, low attendance, and legitimacy issues. In our study, we are analyzing the legislative elections that took place in Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, and Lithuania. After the electoral processes, which took place under these special conditions, it is a must to rethink the electoral processes in order to allow all voters to participate in the election of political decision makers.