COMMENT   As 2013 draws to a close, it has not been a good year for democracy in South-East Asia. Recent news has riveted on the protests in Thailand, where those dissatisfied with the current leadership of Yingluck Shinawatra and her amnesty provisions have taken to the streets rather than opt for a solution through elections.

Throughout the year, however, there have been worrying signs that the increase of authoritarian practices, intolerance, failings in governance and discontent from the public at large have been on the rise in the region.

While the Philippines celebrated one of the fairest and non-violence legislative elections in its history in May, two of the countries in the region experienced among the worst elections in their history.

In both Malaysia and Cambodia, there were legitimate reports of foreigners voting, blackouts during counts, significant discrepancies in the results, failures to follow basic procedures to assure the professional non-biased handling of ballots and stacking of the decks through the placement of voters in constituencies on deeply problematic electoral rolls...