Stigma and discrimination has been found to be the single most dominant determinant for lack of participation in elections by PLWHAs and care givers.
Focus group discussions held in urban and rural areas of KwaZulu- Natal with PLWHAS and care givers who were all registered voters for the 2004 election yielded seemingly well-founded fears that communities will ostracise or marginalise those infected and affected further, if they exposed themselves to the major public events.
The respondents’ opinions correlate with the findings of studies on stigma and discrimination, particularly South Africa’s Department of Health study of 2002, that HIV/AIDS remains a taboo amongst some South African communities, especially in the rural enclaves.
The sense of stigma, it seems, would be strongest amongst people who are symptomatic; respondents argued that most members of the communities would not stand in the same queue with someone with visible signs of disease e.g. body rashes or sores.
Based on these discussions, the report concludes that people who have visible signs of illness from HIV/AIDS, and those who have publicly declared their status, are more likely to eschew from public voting, particularly if they are located in a rural area.
There is nothing to suggest in the main that PLWHAS have lost the will to participate in political life. Quite the contrary. The majority of respondents expressed a desire to participate but were constrained by attitudinal and structural factors.
These results are not representative of the opinions of all PLWHAs as only 68 people participated in the focus groups, but they are indicative of such attitudes and may have external validity.”
(HIV/AIDS and Democratic Governance in South Africa - Illustrating the Impact on Electoral Processes, 2004: 18)
Next: Voter Mortality
