Clean Elections in Asia
By: Enowbachem Agbortanyi
Oct 03, 2022
Elections are key institutions of democracy – but are also present in many autocracies. This week’s graph illustrates the levels of clean elections in Asia, comparing scores in 2011 with 2021. Two countries have advanced significantly, while the quality of elections has deteriorated in four.
Elections in Armenia have improved significantly and are certified as competitive and fair by international observers, contributing to making it one of the top democratizers in V-Dem’s 2022 Democracy Report. Sri Lanka was also long on a path of democratizing but its current trajectory is troubled at the moment.
Unsurprisingly, since the military took over in Thailand in 2014, the election commission has become severely biased and the 2019 elections rates close to the bottom. Likewise in Myanmar where opposition has been harshly repressed since the coup in 2021. In Bangladesh, election irregularities including voter intimidation have become widespread since the country’s autocratization started in 2011. Electoral fraud and the rapid decline of the electoral management body’s autonomy have also raised concerns about the credibility of elections in India while the BJP turned it into an electoral autocracy.
