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Politics

Thailand leaps in global democracy rankings after election

India gets lowest ever mark; Japan and S. Korea remain 'flawed' democracies

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha casts his ballot in the general election at a polling station in Bangkok in March last year. The holding of an election helped push the Southeast Asian nation up the rankings in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index.   © Reuters

TOKYO -- A country that was until recently ruled by a military junta saw the sharpest improvement of any nation worldwide in a new global democracy index, while the world's biggest democracy got its lowest ever score.

Previously classified as a "hybrid regime," Thailand moved up to "flawed democracy" status after holding an election last March -- five years after a caretaker government was deposed in a military coup, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2019. The Southeast Asian nation scored 6.32 on a scale of zero to ten, pushing it up 38 places to 68th in the world last year.

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