By ETimes
Zimbabwe has slightly improved in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index ranking for 2022, moving up one place to number 132 in the world.
The southern African nation’s overall score remained unchanged at 2.92 (an index score out of 10, with 10 being the best) in 2022, according to the EIU. On the other hand, it is also below the Sub-Saharan Africa region score of 4.14.
In the SSA, the country slipped by one place to 33 in 2022 from 32 in 2021.
At number 33 in the region, the country’s electoral process and pluralism score stood at 0.00, the functioning of government at 2.50 and political participation at 3.98.
Political culture and civil liberties scores stand at 5.00 and 3.24 respectively. With the current scores nothing has changed compared to the same period in 2021.
The EIU classifies the country’s regime as authoritarian. This will come as a setback for the country, as these are some of the issues that investors consider before investing their money in the country. Of late, analysts have been lobbying for the need to create a better image for the country in order to attract the much-needed investment.
If it fails to do so, some say the country risks losing investment to other countries that have higher rankings.
With an overall score of 8.14, Mauritius once again claimed first place in the region.Botswana, which recently revised a controversial spy bill that would have allowed investigators to intercept private communications without a court order, followed with a score of 7.73. Cabo Verde had a score of 7.65.
Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner, South Africa, came in with a score of 7.05.
Namibia completed the top 5 with a score of 6.52.
Central Africa Republic is ranked 164 in the world with a score of 1.35 and is ranked 44 in the region.Almost a decade after the 2013 civil war, the country remains fragile and, despite significant improvements, still faces episodes of insecurity.
EIU said many of the nations in SSA continue to be concentrated at the bottom of the Democracy Index rankings.
“The continent has only one “full democracy”—Mauritius—and six “flawed democracies” in 2022, unchanged from the 2021 index,” it said.
“The number of countries classed as “hybrid regimes”, at 14, also remains unchanged from the 2021 index. Authoritarian forms of government continue to dominate, with 23 countries still classified as such.”
This means that the region is the second-lowest ranked region in the world, above only the Middle East and North Africa, which have an average score of 3.34, according to the EIU.
The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties – Harare