Obama re-election 'not objective' – Russian monitors

Published time: January 16, 2013 11:51
Edited time: January 16, 2013 18:13
AFP Photo / Mehdi Taamallah

Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) claims the US presidential election failed to meet democratic standards and international obligations and therefore its results cannot be considered objective.

The Russian election watchdog completed a report based on a distant monitoring of the American poll by several Russian NGOs. The document will be officially presented on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration scheduled for January 21.

The November 6 vote – which secured Obama four more years in the White House – fell short of international election principles. It was neither fair, nor transparent, states the report.

The United States – as a member of international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – is required to follow obligations and standards established for democratic elections.

However, the regularity of the vote was the only international obligation that was fully observed by the US, according to Igor Borisov, the head of the Russian Institute of Electoral Law (one of the organizations behind the report).

“There are quite a few criticisms. American election is like a hamburger: it looks nice but the cutlet inside of it is artificial,” Borisov, a former CEC official observed.

The report draws attention to the fact that over 50 million Americans are denied the right to vote for one reason or another.

“Racial minorities” suffer from violations regarding their political rights more often than any other social group, experts claim. In particular, only 62 per cent of African-Americans and only about a half of Latino Americans were included in voting lists throughout the country.

Commenting on the principle of freedom of election, the authors of the document stated that in some cases the heads of American companies advise  employees on their electoral choices – even through the threat of dismissal.

As for the ballots remaining secret – another fundamental international obligation for democratic elections – it was far from ideal as well, since voters in America are allowed to cast their votes via e-mail or fax.

The US system of sponsoring election campaigns also came under fire as it permits anonymous donations to candidates.

“American reality is completely different from American propaganda. Perhaps, it’s the only country that pretends to be democratic but has neither direct nor national elections,” Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Lower House, told Izvestia daily.

However, Russian monitors also gave a positive assessment to some novelties introduced during the November elections. For instance, they praised the decision by Washington authorities to allow voter registration via Facebook social networking service.

The Russian CEC plans to prepare reports – similar to that on the US vote – on elections in other countries.

Comments (28)

polnick 04.02.2013 23:08

Caucasians real ize that they are being outnumbered by the poorer and hungrier races.  Unfortunately there is no way to hold back the Tsunami of seven billion non-whites hunting for prime goodies. Bloodbaths in South Africa and Rhodesia must not be repeated in America, supporting the Obama multi-racial society will bring an end to militancy. Becoming a member of Whites against Genocide (WAG) or Blacks against Genocide (BAG) will keep us all safe.

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Troy (unregistered) 17.01.2013 16:28

Danaos wrote in #5
Back to the issue:

I have said repeatedly that the root of the problem is that people keep ignoring the basic definitions :

DEMOCRACY is a type of governance in which citizens decide (does not need to be the total human population of a given state - citizenship is something that is defined by the constituents o f a state - e.g. immigrants being given citizenship and voting rights is a typical example of Imperialism, not Democracy). This decision making is NOT at all about electing a leadership but actually DECIDING directly on basic matters of the state. People in key positions are NOT elected but actually chosen among the citizens, acting like civil servants to enforce the DECISIONS of the citizens! I.e. you do not have a minister of finance but you have a council of finance that presents the situation and proposes a tax rate at 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% and citizens then go on to DECIDE on how much tax they are willing to pay and how much state services they expect from that. Going to war or not is also a citizens' decision.

The political systems we have today in most of our states are a far-cry from what Democracy is. These systems are PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEMS

In PARLIAMENTARY the citizens ELECT a tiny number of representatives who go on to rule pretty much arbitrarily enforcing laws and policies pretty much un-checked for the duration of their rule. These ruling parliamentarian governments are ruling so much arbitrarily that in most cases they even infringe the basic rules, that is the CONSTITUTION of the state! All that with impunity. Which in practice means that modern PARLIAMENTARIAN systems are precisely ELECTED DICTATORSHIPS of a finite duration.

Now , if we include the fact that modern political systems in all countries are artificially constructed by Bankers and not by the so called ''grass-roots'' of citizens in all cases, then we do conclude that PARLIAMENTARIAN systems are simply good old OLIGARCHICAL systems.

Havi ng paid attention to the basic definitions, it should not be a surprise that even elections are rigged and that the peoples' will is not really enforced in the governance of states. If citizens simply elect somebody else (and not themselves) to govern, that is the natural result.  The US is NOT a Democracy, we are a republic. It's in the very Constitution we recite all the time. This is why so many people fail to understand what is going on.

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Pallas89juno 17.01.2013 16:10

The U.S. has never had free or fair elections. Winner, money and majority-take all, is the usual way in the U.S. The U.S. is corporatist. The people are venal, overly pragmatic, anti-intellectual, wealth worshipping hysterical pseudo-moralists. In addition, the worst of the mass citizen character defects in the U.S., Amerians of the U.S. are not politically sentient, conscious, what have you. They are nearly always easily manipulated to sell out their own best interests and the domestic political trends of the past 30+ years, since Reagan puppet administration introduced super aggressive neoliberal policy agendas, confirm all the above.

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