ZAMBIA NAMED AMONG TOP THREE MOST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES IN THE WOLRD
ZAMBIA NAMED AMONG TOP THREE MOST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES IN THE WOLRD – V-Dem Report 2024
…..Zambia Named Top Three (3) most Democratising Country in the World.
The recently released Democracy Report 2024 by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) has ranked Zambia number three (3) out of the nine (9) countries that have stalled autocracy (dictatorship) and reinstated democracy. V-Dem is the leading international organisation that studies the quality of democracy around the world and ranks the performance of countries.
The Report notes that Bolivia, Maldives, North Macedonia and Zambia, went through democratic breakdowns but the U-turns are turning them back to democracies. In order of the magnitude of change, out of the nine (9) top democratizing countries in the world, Zambia came out number three (3), just below Maldives and Brazil.
Below it are Lesotho, Thailand, Bolivia, Tunisia, North Macedonia, and Benin.
The report specifically notes on Zambia: “Zambia seemed like an unlikely case to make a U-turn after autocratisation started in earnest in 2009 and it became an electoral autocracy in 2013.
The regression deepened with the election of President Lungu from the Patriotic Front in 2014. His tenure was characterized by severe restrictions on freedom of expression and the media, and assembly. Eventually, civil society groups reacted with pro-democratic mobilization and opposition leaders united in resisting Lungu’s attempts to make constitutional amendments.
This resulted in a 2021 electoral victory for the opposition leader from the United Party for National Development (UPND), Hakainde Hichilema. As of 2023, Zambia restored the LDI levels it had before autocratisation, returned to electoral democracy, and repression has largely ceased.”
The report acknowledges that although there are some challenges, overall, Zambia’s democracy is improving.
This surely must put to shame prophets of doom like Sishuwa Sishuwa who have hired themselves as prophets of doom on behalf of disgruntled politicians.