New Europe: "The handling of COVID-19 will impact upcoming elections"

Governments' handling of the coronavirus outbreak around the world will have repercussions on results in upcoming elections, with Georgia and South Korea being curious cases where the ruling parties are benefiting from their work against the virus, an opinion piece from New Europe suggests.

Authored by Dace Melbārde, member of the European Parliament and former Latvian minister of culture, for the newspaper focused on European affairs, the piece illustrates both examples of governments suffering from mishandling of the principal crisis of 2020 and the reverse effect for those who have so far dealt effectively with it.

Around the world, incumbent governments are feeling the force of public frustration, as death tolls mount and economic impacts become more pronounced [...] [however some] examples demonstrate the reverse impact: where governments benefit electorally from the crisis, thanks to successful handling of the pandemic and an associated surge in popularity," Melbārde pinpoints.

Two examples of the latter case are Georgia and South Korea, it is argued in the piece, with the ruling party in the former polling ahead of the opposition before the parliamentary elections in the coming fall.

Statistical figures of the virus in Georgia, placing the country "in the top tier in terms of containing the virus", have determined the political outcome for the government, the article notes.

The opposition in Georgia, and indeed in Korea [...] are simply unlucky, in the political sense. The governing party has had a good crisis and will be rewarded electorally," argues the author.

Read the full story here.