Democracy in the world is threatened by challenges related to elections, according to the international, Stockholm-based democracy organization Idea.
When Idea's report from the super-election year 2024 is now presented, the figures show that in 40 percent of the countries that Idea has followed, the election result has been questioned, with among other things boycotts and accusations of vote rigging.
Idea's Secretary General, Kevin Casas-Zamora, has also previously, in an interview with TT in May, said that the denial of elections has spread around the world since Donald Trump's loss in the US in 2020.
Another threat to the credibility of democratic elections comes, among other things, digitally.
Disinformation related to election campaigns was found in 80 percent of the investigated countries, and social media platforms have become a popular tool for forces that want to influence election results, both before and after election day.
"Many of the trends that were seen during last year's super-election year will shape the democratic landscape in 2025 and beyond," says Kevin Casas-Zamora in a press release.
Idea has closely followed 54 national elections in 2024.
Facts: Democracy in the world
TT
2024 was a "super-election year" when over 70 countries went to the polls. But democracy as such continued to erode. The average in the annual Democracy Index ranking made by The Economist Intelligence Unit fell to 5.17 on a ten-point scale. It is the lowest average since the measurement began in 2006. In 2023, the average was 5.23.
Currently, 45 percent of the world's population lives in a democracy, 39 percent under authoritarian rule, and 15 percent in "hybrid regimes," according to the report.
The most democratic country is Norway (9.81) followed by New Zealand (9.61), Sweden (9.39), Iceland (9.38), and Switzerland (9.32).
At the bottom of the list are Afghanistan (0.25), Myanmar (0.96), and North Korea (1.08).
The US (7.85) is ranked 28th and classified as a "flawed democracy."
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
