Study shows Uganda democracy in decline

The 2023 Democracy Index has ranked Uganda 99 out of 167 countries across the globe and 19 out of 54 African countries on the continent. This leaves Uganda among the 67 countries in the world and 25 countries on the African continent that have either stagnated or retrogressed as democracies as seen through the lens of electoral processes and pluralism.

The Ugandan government roundly dismissed the report findings, with Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Information Communication Technology and National Guidance minister, describing it as the handiwork of “armchair academicians and researchers.”

He added: “They just sit in their air-conditioned offices in the Western world and start assessing countries when they have not physically reached those countries to see the democratic culture which is prevailing.”

Rights activists and Opposition-leaning politicians have, however, described the findings as a true representation of the state of democracy in Uganda. 

Mr Livingstone Ssewanyana, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), told Saturday Monitor that Uganda’s democracy has been retrogressing.

“These sorts of assessments tend to be subjective, however, they reflect the right state of affairs generally because compared to the 1990s, one would agree with me that there has been a steady democratic drawback in terms of freedoms, in terms of accountability, in terms of functioning of government, in terms of civic participation,” Mr Ssewanyana, who has previously worked for the United Nations Human Rights Council as an independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, said.

Indicators
The story of Uganda’s stagnation in democracy is part of what is reported to be the world’s biggest deterioration in electoral processes and pluralism, which is reported to have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. The region experienced a decrease of 0.19 points primarily due to the governments’ inability to uphold political pluralism and conduct transparent, equitable elections.

Military coups were also considered a factor in the region’s poor performance.

“The spread of military rule has severely weakened sub-Saharan Africa’s score in the electoral process and pluralism category, which declined further in 2023, from 3.63 in 2022 to 3.44. Military rule became more entrenched in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Guinea in 2023,” the report reads in part.

The Democracy Index, a product of the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, measures the performance of countries in the area of democracy based on five thematic areas, namely: electoral processes and pluralism; functioning of governments; political participation of the citizenry; the political culture; and civil liberties.

Some of the indicators used in the assessment of the electoral processes and pluralism, include whether presidential and parliamentary elections are free and fair and devoid of any restrictions; whether irregularities affected outcomes; the level of interference by state bodies and; whether the laws provide equal campaigning opportunities.

It also takes into consideration whether existing constitutional mechanisms can ensure an orderly transfer of power and whether political parties operate without unofficial restrictions and interference and have a realistic chance of taking power through the ballot.

Liberal democracy
Some of the indicators used in the assessment of the functioning of government, include the extent to which elected leaders determine government policies; whether the legislature is the supreme political body with a clear supremacy over other branches of government; whether there is an effective system of checks and balances on government’s exercise of authority.

Other indicators, include whether the government is free of undue influence from the military; and the level of public confidence in government and political parties.

Some of the indicators used in assessment of political participation include voter participation/turn-out for national elections; women’s participation in parliament; the preparedness of the population to participate in lawful demonstrations and; whether authorities make an effort to promote political participation.

Indicators used in the assessment of the democratic political culture include, among others, the extent of support for democratic rule; whether there is a strong separation of religion and the state; whether sections of the population would prefer to have experts or technocrats and not government making key decisions and; whether some sections of the population believe that economic systems are badly run in a democracies.

Indicators used in assessing countries in the area of civil liberties include, among others, the extent of press freedom and freedoms of expression, association, assembly and religious expression; whether there are restrictions to the use of the Internet and social media applications; independence of the judiciary; equality before the law and; whether the state uses torture.

Scores are awarded on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Uganda’s performance
Uganda had an overall score of 4.49 on the global setting and 3.42 on the regional scorecard.

The report indicates that Uganda, which is categorised as a country presided over by a “hybrid regime” (one which combines democracy and authoritarianism) had a score of 3.42 in the area of electoral processes and pluralism.

Dr Baryomunsi was quick to dismiss the assessment, insisting that Uganda is one of the most democratic countries.

“If you talk of political participation, how are leaders chosen in Uganda? They are chosen through an … electoral process. Uganda performs much better than what they are presenting and I suspect they have not set foot in Uganda. They have just done analysis from their offices there without coming here to feel the political temperature in the country and the political environment in which we live,” Dr Baryomunsi said.

Mr Ssewanyana disagrees with Minister Baryomunsi, saying elections mask the fact that political and civic space have been shrinking since the country returned to a multiparty political dispensation.

“Going by the 2021 General Election, it is not in dispute that there was generally a lot of abuse, a lot of restrictions and there was a shutdown of the Internet. There was hardly any citizen participation in as far as awareness of people’s rights during elections was concerned,” the FHRI top official said, adding, “In terms of freedom of expression, association and assembly, if you go by the 1990s you will agree with me that there is hardly any space available for free expression.”

A report titled “2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Uganda” published last March under the auspices of the US Department of State also called out Uganda on the management of electoral processes and pluralism.

“The [2021] elections fell short of international standards and included allegations of arbitrary killings and disappearances of Opposition supporters, disenfranchisement and voter intimidation, harassment of the Opposition, closure of social media websites, and lack of transparency and independence in the Electoral Commission,” the report read in part.

LoP speaks out
Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP), told Saturday Monitor that the findings of both studies are grounded in fact.

“The challenge we have, as Mr Museveni said shortly after taking power, is leaders who overstay in power. Unfortunately he has become that leader who wants to die in power at whatever cost. In the process, democracy will suffer as elections are rigged, people killed, and others arrested. Civic space has continued to shrink, simply because one man thinks Uganda starts and ends with him,” Mr Ssenyonyi said.

The 2023 Democracy Index further says Uganda scored 3.57 in the functioning of government; 3.89 in political participation; 6.88 in political culture; and 4.71 in civil liberties.

Dr Baryomunsi argued that the findings were probably fuelled by misleading information provided by the Opposition on social media.

“I think they are just measuring the noise which they hear from the Opposition and then they make conclusions which are just biased. So I disagree with the ranking that they have given Uganda,” he said.

REGIONAL PERFORMANCE
Across the region, Uganda’s performance outshines that of Rwanda who have been ranked 117 out of 167 countries with an overall score of 3.30. Elsewhere, Uganda pales considerably when compared to the performances of Tanzania and Kenya. Tanzania placed 86 out of 167 countries with an overall score of 5.35. On her part, Kenya came in at 92 with an overall score of 5.05.

According to the report, Rwanda had scores of 1.42 in the area of electoral processes and pluralism; 4.64 in the functioning of government; 2.78 in political participation; 5 in political culture; and 2.65 in civil liberties.

Tanzania had scores of 4.83 in the area of electoral processes and pluralism; 5.36 in functioning of governments; 5.00 in political participation of the citizenry; 6.88 in the political culture; and 4.71 in the areas of civil liberties.

Kenya scored 3.50 in the area of electoral process and pluralism; 5.36 in functioning of government; 6.67 in political participation; 5.63 in the area of political culture; and 4.12 in civil liberties.

Mauritius is the highest ranked African nation, coming in at number 20 on the list of 167 states. It shares the position with Greece.

Mauritius scored 9.17 in electoral processes and pluralism, 7.86 in functioning of governments, 6.11 in political participation of the citizenry, 8.75 in political culture; and 8.82 in civil liberties.

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