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Polls and HIV/Aids: Should MPs be tested?
Davison Maruziva, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
June 03, 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706030078.html

AS concerns mount over the possible collapse of Africa's democratic project under a complex wave of impacts introduced by the HIV and AIDS pandemic, Zimbabwe's main political parties fear they could be providing a hostage to fortune by insisting on testing.

They are thus reluctant to introduce compulsory testing. Several MPs tested for HIV last year and all but three declared their results - they were negative.

It is thought had the results been positive, they might not have been so forthcoming with their declarations.

On average Zimbabwe holds about four by-elections a year due the death of a sitting MP.

Recent research conducted in six countries - five of them in the region - attributes the reluctance to come out in the open to fears of a premature or disastrous end to political careers.

Nelson Chamisa and Gabriel Chaibva, spokespersons of the two MDC factions, last week said requiring prospective candidates to declare their health status had not been discussed thoroughly.

"That thinking," said Chamisa, "has not had thorough debate."

Chaibva, although citing issues of confidentiality, said political parties needed to put in place a mechanism to tackle this growing problem. He cited the case of a Chitungwiza candidate who died a day after his nomination.

Blessing Chebundo (MDC), MP for Kwekwe, is chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health. He said of particular importance were the preventative and mitigatory measures.

He cited the issue of truckers, saying once they were identified as one of the prime elements in the spread of HIV and Aids, subsequent measures to scale up awareness and the provision of treatment, which prolongs life, were put in place for them.

"There was some thinking along those lines for teachers and nurses, some time ago," he said, "but that was dropped because we need a holistic approach.

"The issue is no different from doctors, whose training we invest in for seven years . . . or soldiers. But there is also the issue of human rights for the prospective candidates, because, globally, we are not agreed that HIV and Aids is a notifiable disease."

Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, the Zanu PF spokesperson, was unavailable for comment despite repeated calls.

HIV/Aids was the first disease to be labelled a global security threat by the United Nations Security Council. It was the first to command discussion by the entire Security Council.

The National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (Nango), the umbrella co-ordinating agency for non-governmental organisations, said starting with next year's election they would demand that people be open with their health status.

Fambai Ngirande, the Advocacy and Communications manager at Nango, said: "Anyone who does not declare their status and is not pushing the agenda should not be voted into office. We are concerned at the rate at which people are increasingly being disempowered. There is no political will to serve people who are living with or are affected by HIV and Aids."

Candidates coming out in the open about their health status would stand a better chance of being voted in, he said, because they were likely to push for the improvement of the lives of people living with HIV and Aids.

But Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni exploited the condition of his opponent by suggesting that voting for the opposition candidate was "voting for a dead candidate", delegates to a conference in Cape Town, South Africa last week heard. Museveni's argument was that there was no place for people living with HIV and Aids in leadership.

Professor Nana Poku from Bradford University, United Kingdom, presented a counter perspective, arguing that a candidate who declared their HIV/Aids status could re-energise how societies viewed people living with HIV and Aids.

He said they could draw more support because they would be counted on to pursue the scaling up of anti-retroviral drugs and care for those affected.

In the end, they would constitute an effective counter to the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and Aids.

Researchers from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) found that in Malawi, for example, 42 MPs had died at the height of the pandemic between 1994 and 2006.

An official statement by the then Speaker of Malawi's National Assembly in 2000 disclosed that 28 MPs had died of HIV/Aids-related complications.

"There is a declining trend," say the researchers, "which might be explained by the increased availability of anti-retroviral drugs in the late 1990s and since MPs will be in the higher middle class to upper economic bracket, with access to medical schemes."

In demonstrating the rising numbers of legislators dying before completing their terms due to the possible influence of the HIV and Aids pandemic in Zambia, the researchers say between 1964 and 1984 (the period before the advent of Aids) 46 by-elections were held, 14 of them a result of death by illness and accidents combined.

By comparison, from 1985 to February 2003,102 by-elections were held and 59 were due to HIV and Aids-related deaths.

Idasa's Governance and Aids programme manager, Kondwani Chirambo, says research in Zambia showed that the frequent deaths of MPs and other political representatives due to illness had become common only in the last
10-15 years.

"As a result," Chirambo said, "the number of by-elections generated by the natural deaths of incumbent MPs and councillors has also increased during the same period.

"While only 6.4% of the 46 by-elections between 1964 and 1984 were caused by MPs succumbing to natural deaths, the number rose dramatically between 1985 and 2005: in that period about 60% of the 146 by-elections were due to deaths of incumbent MPs . . . "

There is much concern over the cost of organising and conducting elections, lack of representation and development and unquantifiable frustration for the voters.

In Zambia, a by-election in a large constituency will cost up to US$200 000, while in Tanzania it is US$500 000.Lesotho forked out US$130 000 for each by-election since 2002.

Chirambo said one of the negative impacts of HIV and AIDS on countries was lack of carefully crafted policy responses, because countries would have lost people with skills.

It was not uncommon to find that countries either failed to submit key documents or presented partially completed reports, for example, for negotiations with international financial institutions.

Electoral management bodies would be affected in their ability to organise and conduct elections more efficiently because of loss of skilled personnel, while parliaments could witness power shifts arising from HIV and AIDS induced by-elections.

Political parties would suffer from the impact of the loss of members either in leadership positions, people with organisational capabilities, while membership would be affected in their participation in the electoral process because of either their own health status or because they have to tend to relatives living with HIV or AIDS and do not have time to register as voters, verify the voters' roll and go out to vote.

The political cost is that small opposition parties were disadvantaged because they did not have as much funding as ruling parties, which have access to government funds.

In Zimbabwe, the larger opposition parties do have access to government funds.

One question arising from the weaknesses wrought by HIV and AIDS is whether it is not time for the "first past the post" system to be modified, which would mean either waiving the requirement for by-elections or adopting a proportional representation system.

But proportional representation has its own drawbacks which stem from concerns about poor accountability, as MPs will not be directly elected by voters.

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