Well Andy,
Here's an expansion of that view but one that comes from one of the
countries that sometimes have to put up with the U.S. scrutiny of their
election under the damocles sword of getting cut off from foreign
aid/international financing, etc.
> > >Subject: FW: AN AFRICAN VIEW OF THE US ELECTION :Not funny
> >
> > >"A history professor from Uppsala Universitet in
> > >Sweden, called to tell me about an article she had
> > >read in which a
> > >Zimbabwe politician was quoted as saying that
> > >children should study this
> > >event (ie: the US election situation) closely for
> > >it shows that election
> > >fraud is not only a third world phenomena.
> > >
> > > 1. Imagine that we read of an election occurring
> > >
> > >anywhere in the third world in which the
> > >self-declared winner was the
> > >son of the former prime minister and that former
> > >prime minister
> > >was himself the former head of that nation's
> > >secret police (CIA).
> > >
> > > 2. Imagine that the self-declared winner lost
> > >the
> > >popular vote but won based on some old colonial
> > >holdover (electoral
> > >college) from the nation's pre-democracy past.
> > >
> > > 3. Imagine that the self-declared winner's
> > >'victory'
> > >turned on disputed votes cast in a province
> > >governed by his
> > >brother!
> > >
> > > 4. Imagine that the poorly drafted ballots of
> > >one
> > >district, a district heavily favoring the
> > >self-declared winner's
> > >opponent, led thousands of voters to vote for the
> > >wrong
> > >candidate.
> > >
> > > 5. Imagine that that members of that nation's
> > >most
> > >despised caste,fearing for their
> > >lives/livelihoods, turned out in
> > >record numbers to vote in near-universal
> > >opposition to the self-declared
> > >winner's candidacy.
> > >
> > > 6. Imagine that hundreds of members of that
> > >most-despised caste were intercepted on their way
> > >to the polls by state
> > >police operating under the authority of the
> > >self-declared winner's brother.
> > >
> > > 7. Imagine that six million people voted in the
> > >disputed province and that the self-declared
> > >winner's 'lead' was only 327
> > >votes. Fewer, certainly, than the vote counting
> > >machines' margin of error.
> > >
> > > 8. Imagine that the self-declared winner and his
> > >
> > >political party opposed a more careful by-hand
> > >inspection and
> > >re-counting of the ballots in the disputed
> > >province or in its most hotly
> > >disputed district.
> > >
> > > 9. Imagine that the self-declared winner,
> > >himself a
> > >governor of a major province, had the worst human
> > >rights record of
> > >any province in his nation and actually led the
> > >nation in executions.
> > >
> > > 10. Imagine that a major campaign promise of the
> > >self-declared winner was to appoint like-minded
> > >human rights violators to
> > >lifetime positions on the high court of that
> > >nation.
> > >
> > > None of us would deem such an election to be
> > >representative of anything other than the
> > >self-declared winner's
> > >will-to-power. All of us, I imagine, would wearily
> > >turn the page
> > >thinking that it was another sad tale of pitiful
> > >pre- or anti-democracy
> > >peoples in some strange land elsewhere."
> > >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 27 2004 - 11:29:00 PST