Incumbents pay the price in year of global elections

CNN —

A year of global elections, in which nations with half the world’s population are casting votes is proving punishing for incumbents struggling with the painful economic aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the scandals and exhaustion that afflict leaders who spend years in power.

Elections in recent days in France and Britain have shown disgruntled but informed electorates using democracy in novel ways through tactical voting to reshape their countries. In Iran – even amid the highly restrictive circumstances of an election choreographed by the clerical autocracy, voters sprung a surprise and a hardliner lost.

So far, this mass global exercise of political self-determination has done as much to highlight the growing threats to democracy, the rule of law and the rise of populist leaders as to enshrine the principle that people should choose their leaders. In some countries, like El Salvador and Slovakia, leaders and parties with authoritarian instincts have cemented their power through the ballot box. In others, like Russia, they’ve strangled the rights of voters to extend their own rule. And there are rising concerns about how new leaders with strong mandates in nations like Indonesia and Mexico could use their power to centralize authority and erode democratic structures.

For leaders seeking reelection this year, there are sobering omens. Incumbency usually means vulnerability — as a landmark vote in South Africa demonstrated — and there is widespread angst in developed societies over cost-of-living crises. Populism is having another moment to mirror Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016, which was quickly followed by Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States.

But democracy’s