(Business in Cameroon) - In its 2019 democracy index recently published, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranks Cameroon as the 40th most democratic country in Africa out of 50 countries ranked in the continent. Seychelles, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sao Tome and Principe have not been ranked in this edition.  

Cameroon, whose democracy is placed in the "authoritarian" category in the report, lost four places in this edition since, in the 2018 edition, it was the continental 36th.

In the CEMAC region, it is outranked by Congo (38^th) and Gabon (29^th).

On a general tone, the Cemac zone ranked poorly in the index. Three countries in this zone, namely Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and CAR are among the last four, just ahead of DRC, another Central African country.

The EIU's Democracy Index is based on five sets of criteria namely electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. Based on these criteria, the EIU classifies countries into four types of regimes namely  "full democracy," "flawed democracy," "hybrid " and "authoritarian."

BRM