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Freedom House lists Kazakhstan as 'consolidated authoritarian regime'

19 November 2008, 10:20 | Interfax-Ukraine
Almaty, November 19 (Interfax) - Freedom House has listed Kazakhstan among countries with consolidated authoritarian regimes in the survey titled Nations in Transit 2008, which estimates democratic reform processes in 29 former Socialist countries across Europe and Asia.

"The six countries labeled as consolidated authoritarian regimes include Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Belarus," Freedom House Director for Europe Vladimir Shkolnik said presenting the survey results in Almaty on Tuesday.

"The appraisal of the level of democracy was based on such categories as national democratic governance, local democratic governance, electoral process, civil society, independent media, judicial framework and independence, and corruption," Shkolnik said.

"Our rating is an mathematical average of these categories and sub-ratings," he said.

"Slovenia, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Bulgaria are countries with consolidated democratic regimes," he said.

"In our view, these are countries that face no danger of regress," he said.

"The countries that are in the process of development of their democracy but that have not yet reached the proper level are the Balkan countries, Romania, the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova," Shkolnik said.

Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia have been listed as countries with semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes, he said.

"Kazakhstan has seen a decline almost in all categories, such as independence of the judicial system, media freedom, state governance, and corruption," he said.

"The only thing that has improved in Kazakhstan is civil society. At the same time, the elections that were held last year did not meet international standards, as their result was the election of a uni-partisan parliament," Shkolnik said.

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