Clean elections no guarantee of strong democratic society, global study finds

Although elections are often touted as the linchpin of governance reform efforts around the world, a report recently published by Global Integrity finds that long-term benefits offered by elections are often undermined by a lack of government accountability and the absence of strong anti-corruption mechanisms, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the study’s authors, elections should no longer be used as a simplistic litmus test for a government’s commitment to democracy, especially in countries at political crossroads. Assessing government accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms in 55 world’s countries, the Global Integrity Report: 2007 includes Moldova for the first time. With an overall score of 60%, Moldova’s integrity indicators are scored as ‘week’. The fields where Moldova scored the worst are political financing (12 of 100) and law enforcement (33 of 100). At the same time, Moldova is said to have a moderately strong legal framework for fighting corruption. Unfortunately, according to the report, these laws are rarely enforced effectively. In a pattern seen in other former Soviet satellites, the gap between legal and practical realities is among the largest recorded in 2007, indicating serious problems with governance and anti-corruption. Executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch accountability and the civil service are all assessed as weak to very weak. Global Integrity is an international non-profit organisation that tracks global governance and corruption trends. The Global Integrity Report: 2007 is the product of months of on-the-ground reporting and data gathering by a team of more than 250 in-country journalists and researchers