A new report by the Electoral Integrity Project, a joint endeavour by Harvard and Sydney universities, says the quality of elections in five Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand – is among the worst in the world. The region’s score in the study’s perceptions of electoral integrity (PEI) was a dismal 56 out of 100, compared with a global average of 64. That puts this region below the Middle East and both West and Central Africa. Of the 11 indicators in the PEI index, the Southeast Asian countries singled out by the project ranked the worst in five.
