KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 3): Malaysia made great strides against the backdrop of a diminishing state of democracy around the globe as dozens of nations experienced recent declines in democratic values, including tainted elections and restrictions on individual freedoms, according to a new study published Thursday by a Swedish political advocacy group.

The analysis by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance said democratic norms and standards were faltering in nearly half of the 173 countries it surveyed due to weakening government checks and balances, corruption, rigged elections and a general lack of accountability from elected leaders who flout the law.

The study — conducted in five world regions, including Europe, the Americas, Africa, West Asia and the Indo-Pacific — ranked countries in four categories, including representation, rights, rule of law and electoral participation.

The report said the global state of democracy in 2023 is complex, fluid and unequal.

It said that across every region of the world, democracy has continued to contract, with declines in at least one indicator of democratic performance in half of the countries covered in the report.

Measured in terms of the areas of improvement and decline within each country, 2022 was the sixth consecutive year in which more countries experienced net declines in democratic processes than net improvements.

This six-year pattern of decline is the longest of this kind since its records began in 1975. In short, democracy is still in trouble, stagnant at best and declining in many places.

But there are a few green shoots of hope, notably corruption falling and surprisingly high levels of political participation.

Malaysia made significant advances in representation in the last five years as a result of improvements in credible elections and free political parties.

Malaysia (ranked at 92) rose 17 places in the rankings for representation on 2021.

The report said Malaysia’s improvement can be credited in part to the convincing defeat of the long-powerful Umno, which had clung to power in the face of persistent and wide-ranging corruption allegations, in the November 2022 elections.

The report said that after lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 and introducing automatic voter registration, the 2022 Malaysian election saw an increased turnout of three million more voters, compared with the previous election cycle in 2018.

In this case, the actions of the electorate in largely removing a corruption-troubled party from power worked in complement with the nation’s anti-corruption commission, a fourth-branch institution that had successfully obtained the conviction of former prime minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak for corruption, for his role in the 1MDB scandal.

The study said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, established in 2009, has solved several high-profile corruption cases over the years and secured the indictment of two former prime ministers in 2022 and 2023.

It added Malaysia has seen a corresponding increase in absence of corruption over the last five years.