Repression and resilience: Diagnosing closing space mid-pandemic

44 REPRESSION AND RESILIENCE: DIAGNOSING CLOSING SPACE MID-PANDEMIC
of their accounts. As a result, local NGOs have had to reroute significant efforts toward alleviating the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the lack of access to safe water, limited hygiene, food insecurity and malnutrition.
Simultaneously, a deepening split between civil society and opposition parties has propelled the emergence of
alternative civil society coordination groups, which aim to reclaim their independence from all political affiliations.
The level political playing field had been undermined in the last five years through a series of actions such as barring
and co-opting opposition parties, harassing breakaway groups, and the instrumentalisation of official media outlets.
An additional blow was delivered in June 2020, when a Supreme Court intervention ruled the current electoral law
void. The newly appointed National Electoral Council created a new paralegal framework with no constitutional or
demographic basis for the elections of the 2021-2026 Legislature. The new system raised the total number of deputies;
redistributed the proportion of seats in favour of lesser populated states; modified the seat apportionment system;
eliminated direct uninominal candidacies; and dismantled the system of Indigenous peoples’ representation. The new
norms will only continue to skew the critically impacted political field in favour of the government.
Burundi
As COVID-19 began spreading across Burundi, the ruling party minimised the crisis and avoided implementing
containment measures that would have compromised their re-election campaign. The few pandemic measures
taken were instead used to evade electoral scrutiny: African Union observers were told upon arrival that they had to
quarantine until after ballots closed, whilst voters registered abroad were unable to enter the country. Only once a new
President was elected did the government acknowledge the pandemic and carry out large-scale testing as a way to
gain legitimacy, even though doubts persist on the reliability of official COVID data.
Civic space has been under threat for a while, with a gradual decline taking place years before the pandemic, and
intensifying since 2015 following protests against President Nkurunziza’s third mandate. The ruling elite has harmed the
legitimacy of a dynamic civil society by creating government-organised non-governmental organisations (GONGOs),
whose leaders are often picked for high-level political appointments. Together with government-owned media
platforms, GONGOs legitimise government positions vis-à-vis the opposition and give a fake semblance of pluralism
and inclusiveness. Alongside that, authorities have launched campaigns framing civil society as a security threat.
Several activists have thus been exiled or have had to move their mobilisation online, although with limited impact.
A number of legal measures have been put in place that subject civil society to authorities’ control, regulate public
meetings, and curtail media freedom through mandatory registrations. A major chilling effect has also derived from
administrative attacks, such as the seizure of NGO assets and the suspension of some organisations for not respecting
ethnic personnel quotas or for allegedly conspiring in an insurrection. Regarding extrajudicial measures, there has
been an increase in state violence targeting civil society, activists, journalists, and opposition and religious figures. All
these forms of civil space repression are sensitive to the electoral cycle and have worsened around election time.
The pre-pandemic space for electoral competition was already inaccessible due to efforts to hinder any opposition
- for instance setting high financial barriers for running in elections and requiring government permission to hold
party meetings. To further skew the level playing field, the ruling party has engaged in a “Nyakurisation” process, in
which authorities legally approve only party wings whose leaders are subservient to the ruling party and that can
therefore act as their satellites. On top of this, the government has abused state institutions like the National Police and