THE QUALITY of democracy in Slovakia worsened last year, says a report entitled IVO Barometer prepared by the Public Affairs Institute (IVO), an NGO think tank, the SITA newswire wrote.
Deterioration was reported in all areas monitored by IVO, including democratic institutions, rule of law, legislation, human and minority rights, and independence of the media. Compared to 2008, the quality of democracy dropped from 2.9 points to 3.3 points in 2009, based on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best.
“Problematic trends did not disappear, party cronyism did not weaken, and marginalisation of the parliamentary opposition in the form of rejection of all its legislative proposals persists,” IVO President Grigorij Mesežnikov told SITA on Wednesday, January 20, adding that implementation of the principle of party and political loyalty towards the ruling coalition at the expense of professionalism and competitiveness had a major impact on state institutions.
Mesežnikov said there is an alarming question about judicial independence, which some judges themselves drew attention to, which is rare in democratic countries. The government reacted in a typical way to the situation and its defence was reminiscent of the era prior to 1989, Mesežnikov said.
