Voting in Serbia (BetaPhoto/Milan Obradovic)
In a new annual report by Freedom House released on April 28, Serbia is listed in the category of „hybrid regimes“ having fallen back in the area of democratic governance at the national level.
Parliamentary elections in June 2020 were held without competition, the result being a de facto one-party parliament, also owing to the personalization of governance by [Serbian President] Aleksandar Vucic.
Worse results in 2020 compared to 2019 were registered in the area of electoral process. Serbia's score dropped from 4.50 points to 4.25, because of changes to the electoral legislation conducted by the ruling party shortly before the vote, which also deprived the voters of an opportunity to choose, since the majority of opposition parties boycotted the polls, the report further says.
According to the Freedom House Nations in Transit report, for two consecutive years Serbia is no longer considered as belonging in the category of democratic countries. Its score dropped to 3.89, compared to 3.96 of the previous year.
The country’s annual score is down from 49 percent to 48 percent, according to the evaluation of overall democratic development on the scale of 1 to 7.
Based on this scale, the countries surveyed are classified into the following categories: consolidated authoritarian regimes (1-2), semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes (2.01-3), transitional/hybrid regimes (3.01-4), semi-consolidated democracies (4.01-4) and consolidated democracies (5.01/7).
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