Mozambique: Falling scores for democracy

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Mozambique: Falling scores for democracy

9:28 CAT | 06 Mar 2020

Picture: Freedom House

Mozambique has steadily fallen in democracy ratings. In the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) democracy index in 2007, it was 96 out of 167 countries, and considered a “hybrid regime”. In the 2019 index (issued 20 January 2020) it was 120 out of 176 and considered an “authoritarian regime.” The ranking is based on five indices and lowest scores were for “functioning of government” and “electoral process and pluralism,” which had dropped considerably since 2007. In the new report Angola scores slightly higher (at 119) and Zimbabwe lower (at 129). Higher ranks include Malawi (87), and Tanzania (95) – considered hybrid – and South Africa (40) and the USA (25) considered “flawed democracies”, having free and fair elections but with problems. Elections in hybrid regimes have “substantial irregularities” including government pressure on opposition parties. In “authoritarian regimes” (Mozambique’s status now) “political pluralism is absent or heavily circumscribed.”

In the Freedom House “Freedom in the World 2020” published 4 March, Mozambique had the second largest fall from 2019 (only Benin was worse); the fall was due to “flawed elections and state repression of dissent”. [To read the full report, click HERE]

Mozambique now ranks 131 out of 209, and has a score of 45 out of 100. Last year (2019) it ranked 124 with a score of 51. In 2013 it ranked 113 with a score of 59. Mozambique is still considered “partly free”. Scores over 71 mean for Freedom House a country is “free” while below 35 it is “not free”. Freedom House is a conservative think tank and one of its “individual rights” is that people are “allowed to purchase and sell land”, which is barred in the Mozambican constitution in an attempt to prevent landlessness. But Freedom House is also critical of the United States which has fallen dramatically from a rank of 37 and score of 93 in 2013 to a rank of 53 and score of 86 now. The US has fallen 16 places while Mozambique fell 18 places since 2013. Portugal ranks 14 and has a score of 96.

ALSO READ: Mozambique among countries with largest decline in freedom and democracy – Freedom House

Internet score falling too: Mozambique was once a leader for the internet, and had e-mail in the early 1990s before many other countries, due to the importance given to it by the main university, UEM. Now, Mozambique is trailing. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) does an annual inclusive internet index, and its 2020 issue (2 March) finds Mozambique 94 of 100 countries ranked. Its neighbours Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi are ranked 86, 90, 95 and 97. In significant part the low rank for Mozambique is due to poor availability of the internet. South Africa is ranked 33, the UK 8, the US 3, and Sweden is number 1. https://theinclusiveinternet.eiu.com/explore/countries/performance

Source: News reports & clippings