CAIRO: A global democracy study released last Wednesday ranked Egypt one of the 43 least democratic countries in the world.
The study titled “Freedom in the World is conducted annually by Freedom House, a US-based NGO, which aims to promote democracy and civil rights. Freedom House used three categories to measure democracy; ‘free’, ‘partly free’, and ‘not free’.
Of the 193 countries sampled in the global survey, 22 percent fell into the not free category, including Egypt.
One Egyptian blogger, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that it was no surprise to her. “These statistics are based on official statistics, said the blogger.
Last year, the report attributed difficulties in democratization to the “suppression of journalists’ freedom of expression, repression of opposition groups, and the passage of constitutional amendments that hinder the judiciary’s ability to oversee executive excesses.
The report also cited the 2007 renewal of emergency law as a hindrance to democracy. Over the past years, the report s overall assessment revealed that democracy has been on a downward spiral for several years.
Similar Freedom House reports from 2004 reveal that political explanations for Egypt’s lack of democratic progress lie in the ruling National Democratic Party’s unwavering control over parliament and election results.
According to the study, half of the countries surveyed managed to achieve the ‘free’ category and 32 percent of the sample was classified as ‘partly free’. In the Middle East, only six countries managed to be categorized ‘partly free.’
