Brasília, April 22, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - In a comparison with other Latin American countries, Brazil attained the maximum rating on the Electoral Democracy Index (EDI), according to a report released yesterday (21) by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The index reflects the degree of popular participation in elections, the freedom of elections, whether they are clean, and whether the vote is the principal means of access to public office in a country. The index ranges from 0 to 1; the higher the value, the greater the degree of electoral democracy.

Of the 18 countries that were investigated, five others, besides Brazil, obtained the maximum rating over the course of 12 years: Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Uruguay. The country with the lowest average was Colombia (0.57).

According to the report, the EDI demonstrates the evolution of electorial democracy in Latin America since the decade of the '70's, when the choice of leaders by direct vote was more an exception than the rule on the continent. The Latin American EDI, which was 0.28 in 1977, rose to 0.69 in 1985, and began the decade of the '90's at 0.86. The average index in 2002 was 0.93 in Latin America.

The survey queried 19 thousand citizens and 231 leaders in Latin America about the situation on the continent over the last 20 years.

Translator: David Silberstein