The Economist’s Democracy Index Report 2022 ranks Albania in 64^th place with 6.41 points, improving by four positions compared to 2021.

Albania and Montenegro have registered the biggest improvement in the Democracy Index for the last year.

According to the Report, Serbia’s democracy index has deteriorated, with the country going down to the 68^th place, whereas North Macedonia has improved by one point, climbing to the 71^st place. Bosnia and Herzegovina fares worse in the region in terms of the democracy index at the 97^th place.

Kosovo is not included in the Report.

Albania scored the highest rating in the civil liberties indicator with 7.35 points.

The second indicator with the highest rating in Albania’s democracy indicator for the past year is the the electoral process and pluralism (7 points), followed by the government functioning (6.43) and the political culture (6.25).

The weakest score is that of the political participation with just five points.

The Economist’s report assesses the state of democracy in 167 countries based on five indicators.

/u.sh/

During a press conference, the premier Rama stressed that, one of the main reasons for this improvement of the country in the ranking of this index is precisely the electoral reform much talked about by some people inside and outside the country.

In “The Economist” report on Democracy Index 2020, for the first time in 3 decades, Albania has shown an increase and practically a jump, leaving the category of “hybrid regime” and entering a higher category.

“Actually, “The Economist” analyzed the Albania’s index in 2006 and until 2013 the trend of evaluating the democracy index has been steadily declining,” the Prime Minister Rama said.

According to the Prime Minister, Rama, following the “The Economist” rating, Albania marks the highest achievement so far, in terms of the Democracy Index, as it brings the transition from one category to another one from the classification of democracy point of view.

“We have entered the same classification as the member states of the European Union and the USA, while other countries in the region are still listed in the category of hybrid regimes. Improving the Democracy Index makes us one of the few countries that have improved at a time when many other countries are deteriorating, especially during the global pandemic,” the Prime Minister Rama said.

“The government is praised for the democratizing reform and the promotion of the country’s development. Electoral reform has been also assessed, reform, subject to much discussion, cursed by one party or many domestic and foreign parties. It is considered one of the main reasons for this improvement. Albania, through the reform and the dismantling of the old formula of coalitions and the standardization with each participating states of the OSCE, Albania has entered another class in this aspect as well”, the Prime Minister Rama said.

“The facts speak for themselves, Albania experienced great, double disasters to cope in over a year, the earthquake and the pandemic increases even more in my eyes the value of this assessment in the ranking of the Democracy Index,” the premier Rama added. //a.i/