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IVO: Quality of Democracy Shrank by 0.4 points Year-on-Year in 2009
Wednesday 20 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 20 (TASR) - The quality of democracy in Slovakia was lower in 2009 than in the preceding year, according to the results of an IVO Barometer carried out by the Public Affairs Institute (IVO) that was published on Wednesday.
The quality of democracy in Slovakia in 2009 was assessed at 3.3 points, which represents a deterioration of 0.4 points year-on-year. "A deterioration was seen in all spheres," said IVO president Grigorij Meseznikov at a press conference on the same day.
The rating scale was 1 to 5, with a mark of 1 representing the optimal state of democracy according to the standards and criteria applied by the European Union and the Council of Europe.
Developments in the sphere of political democracy in Slovakia were significantly affected by the actions of the current Government, and especially the strongest coalition party Smer-SD. "The governing Coalition concentrated its power in 2006 and continues to do so," said Meseznikov, adding that the level of clientelism in Slovakia hasn't improved either.
Meseznikov also pointed to efforts to manipulate the results of the elections to the Higher Territorial Units (VUC) at the end of last year. "The practice of buying votes was obvious," he stressed.
According to legal expert Jaroslav Pilat, the trend of ignoring the Opposition in Parliament continues. "Even in that most of their (the Opposition's) proposals are eliminated at the first reading," he said, adding that the Coalition doesn't approve the Opposition's proposals even if it thinks they are good.
According to Pilat, the Government is also abusing the tool of short-tracked legislative proceedings. Another similar shortcoming is the approval of indirect law amendments, which are abused as well.
The notably worse assessment of democracy in Slovakia in 2009 was caused by a regress in all four assessed categories, said IVO representatives. The worst developments were seen in the spheres of the independent media, the public-service media, democratic institutions and the legal state. A similar drop was observed in the protection of and respect for human and minority rights. The smallest decline was reported in the legislative sphere.
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