Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

The reform of political party laws and electoral laws to fit the preferences of the ruling party is a
recurring tactic to create an uneven playing field. In many cases, political parties are free to exist
and operate, without any legal hurdles that prevent participation and without any obvious
manipulation or rigging of elections. However, the electoral system and campaign regulations put
opposition parties at a major disadvantage vis-à-vis the incumbent as the rules of the game ensure
power remains concentrated in the hands of a small political elite. The electoral process is then
rendered meaningless as it is not representative, inclusive or participatory.
Reforms of electoral law can often restrict space for contestation through high barriers to entry,
either through registration requirements or the electoral threshold (Georgia, El Salvador, Indonesia,
Guatemala). In Indonesia, for instance, the verification process for parties to participate in elections
became so strict in 2014 that the number of political parties decreased from 48 to 12. This allows big
parties – both ruling parties and major opposition parties – to maintain their dominance, while limiting
the ability of small and new political parties to compete. In Guatemala, such high barriers to entry
are combined with highly flexible operating requirements, giving established political parties a pass
on poor performance on transparent campaigning and inclusiveness, while ruling out competition
from new players. This greatly restricts the options available for voters and political contestation in
general.
The purposeful obstruction of reform may also be a strategy adopted to maintain the existing unlevel
playing field. In many countries such a problematic regulatory system was inherited from the past,
so one cannot speak of a major attack on the political playing field. For instance, the electoral
framework of Guatemala was a remnant of the end of the Civil War which reproduced a cycle of
crises – until the reforms in 2016 brought about some change. In such cases, the attack on democratic
space occurs through the efforts to prevent reform and uphold the status quo. In Guatemala, for
instance, many political parties tried for over 30 years to preserve closed electoral lists, as these
gave complete control to parties and deprived citizens of true electoral accountability mechanisms.
In El Salvador, the case study concluded that “the electoral system had been designed as a cartel to
keep those who are part of it in competition and to keep outsiders away”. 51
One detrimental result of such skewed electoral systems is that voting becomes the least effective
way to effect change. “While ggroups of citizens may be free in formulating and articulating their
preferences, the tilted electoral rules bear negatively on weighing those preferences equally in the
conduct of the government”. 52 This strip electoral processes of their functions for enabling
participation, accountability and representation.
51
See El Salvador case study summary, Annex 6.2
52
See Georgia case study summary, Annex 6.4
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