Elections in South America
By: V-Dem Staff
Oct 28, 2019
In October, millions of people went to the polls in South America, where elections were held in Bolivia on October 20th and in Argentina and Uruguay on October 27th. V-Dem’s Regional Comparison Graph displays the development of the Clean Elections Index in South American countries, comparing data from 2000 and 2018.
The Clean Elections Index reflects the extent to which elections are free and fair, which entails an absence of registration fraud, systematic irregularities, government intimidation of the opposition, vote buying and election violence. The Index is measured on an interval from 0, not free and fair to 1, completely free and fair.
The Regional Comparison Graph illustrates the contrast between two selected years. Countries on or very close to the line had small changes, while countries above the line presented a positive change, and those bellow the line have declined. Significant changes are shown in red for decline and green for improvement.
The graph illustrates that most South American countries did not have significant changes in the Clean Elections Index between 2000 and 2018, with the exception of Peru with improvements, and Bolivia and Venezuela with declines. Venezuela shows particularly large deterioration in free and fair elections, dropping from a score of 0.75 in 2000 to 0.13 in 2018. In the years analysed, Chile and Uruguay had the two highest scores, followed closely by Argentina and Brazil.
To learn more about V-Dem’s indicators and graphing tools, including regional comparisons, visit v-dem.net.
