“The military’s political influence means elections are far from free, fair or competitive.”
Political Editor
LONDON: The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) has said that the spread of wars, authoritarian crackdowns, and a decline in trust in mainstream political parties and democratic standards around the world have fallen during 2023. The report, titled ‘Age of Conflict’, examines 165 independent states and 2 independent territories around the world, classifying each country as one of 4, including full democracy, weak democracy, hybrid systems, and authoritarian systems. According to this index, the top three countries are Norway, New Zealand, and Iceland, while the bottom ranks are North Korea, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. It represents the lowest level since the index was published in 2011, compared to 5.29 a year ago. In Asia, Pakistan’s index fell sharply, falling to 3.25, making it a ‘hybrid regime’. ‘ after being downgraded to ‘authoritarian regime’, while falling 11 places in the global ranking, it is notable that more than half (15) of the region’s 28 countries saw a drop in scores. And only 8 countries improved their score. Pakistan is one of the 6 countries in the world, whose ranking has been changed, after the improvement of Greece to ‘Full Democracy’, Papua New Guinea, and Paraguay to ‘Hybrid Regime’. After improvements from ‘defective democracy’ and Angola from ‘dictatorship’ into a ‘hybrid system’, the Economic Intelligence Unit said that ‘the military’s political influence means that elections are free, fair. or are far from competitive. “Not surprisingly, there will be no regime change or more democracy in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Russia,” the EUI said.
