Blogging the democratic revolution
First reports are in on today’s municipal elections in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez is “winning.” But turnout is so thin that the government has extended voting by two (update: now three) hours to try to make it a double-digit turnout. First reports say it’s running at about 8%. Updated, with the polls closed, the turnout is estimated at 20%. That’s an 80% abstention rate. What a sad sorry affair this is. About 3350 municipal positions are at stake. Jimmy Carter must be so proud of his job instilling confidence in the system last August, which by his own words, was the…
El Universal’s Roberto Giusti has an insightful interview with a top pollster in Venezuela who’s found that President Hugo Chavez is rapidly sliding in the popular approval polls. Among many reasons, he’s found that poor people can only be bought off with ‘social programs’ for so long. Chavez also has dropped in a relatively short period of time, to 45% support, partly because most of his programs have not panned out to expectations (e.g., 400,000 Chavez ‘scholarships’ were dangled before the poor, but only 78 were forked out). And about a third of that popular support is purely for practical…
Election day is tomorrow in Venezuela. It’s more awful than anyone realizes. Not only are the results stacked and foreordained, the electronic evidence one leaves at the ballot box is easily traced to the individual voters, effectively nullifying secret ballot. What will follow will be retribution for dissidents. No one will be permitted to dissent in secret. Anymore. In the end, Venezuela will get Saddamite and Albanian and Castro style “democracy” where 99.99% of the votes go to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. That wrenching knowledge is fully on the minds of Venezuelans as they decide whether to vote or abstain…
Is there anything harder than picking yourself up to vote in an election you know won’t win? Such is the question confronting Venezuelans this weekend. In the States, those of us who are blue voters who live in red states, and red voters who live in blue cities know what this is like. But it does not stop us. How much harder it is, though, when one knows the system is RIGGED with signs of fraud. It’s hard to lose, but it’s even harder to lose when one really wins. That is what Venezuelans are confronted with. They say vote…
It happened after Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in 1998. Nine billion dollars in reconstruction aid was promised by donor governments and corporations, yet less than 50% of it actually materialized. In 2003, a devastating earthquake his Bam, Iran, in which 26,000 people died. I still remember the images, and I still remember that over $1 billion in relief aid was pledged. Yet less than $120 million showed up. And remember the tsunami that rattled the world in December 2004, when we saw unprecedented generosity on behalf of the people of the world? Our respective governments tried to match up…
Alek Boyd has a good essay describing in detail all the suspicious meetings around machinery ahead of the August 7 Venezuelan local elections. The circumstantial evidence suggests that the fix is in. Read all the way to the end, where he has some interesting speculation about the real role of the Chavista International Youth Festival. I’ll give you a clue: They are up to no good. Read it here.
It’s the biggest demonstration since the August Recall Referendum. Chavez sicced the firehoses on the thousands of demonstrators. Miguel Octavio has the story and the first dramatic photos here. UPDATE: Daniel has further information here. And Instapundit has taken note, too. UPDATE: Associated Press reports that rocks and bottles were hurled at the thousands of opposition marchers by two dozen chavistas screaming insults. UPDATE: Reuters reports that the chavistas blocked the marchers and set piles of garbage on fire.
In the wake of terrorist bombings against his country, Egypt’s President Mubarak has declared his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections. Not that there was any doubt that he’d run for a fifth term, but now he has a platform to go on. President Hosni Mubarak announced his bid yesterday to run in Egypt’s first multicandidate elections on Sept. 7, promising new legislation to “besiege” terrorism and replace the country’s much-criticized emergency laws. Mubarak, 77, Egypt’s leader for almost a quarter of a century and a key U.S. ally in the Arab world, has cast himself as a moderating influence…
It looks like a somewhat promising election is about to go down the tubes. It looks like deposed military strongman Vieira won Guinea-Bissau’s runoff election. But allegations of fraud are coming from the other candidate, Sanha, who is the current ruling party’s candidate. Guinea-Bissau’s former military ruler Joao Bernardo Vieira has won run-off presidential elections, the electoral commission has announced. Mr Vieira, known as Nino, came to power in a coup and ruled for 18 years until overthrown in 1999 by the armed forces. Hours before the provisional results were announced, a spokesman for Mr Vieira’s rival said he would…
Ugandans went to the polls today to vote in a referendum on allowing multiple parties run in elections. Political parties were effectively outlawed 19 years ago, but President Museveni is being pressured by foreign donors, who supply half of the government’s budget, to enact reforms. Turnout was very low largely due to torrential rains and partly due to apathy. Ugandans are choosing whether to allow multiparty politics in the East African country in a referendum Thursday, the first step in reforming the country’s constitution, which forbids political parties from campaigning in elections. President Yoweri Museveni banned multiparty politics when he…
After suffering through terrible years under a populist madman who suspended the national legislature when free parliamentary threatened his rule, and following three years of a bloodless military coup, the people of Guinea-Bissau are ready to return to multi-party democracy. Indications are showing that, indeed, today will be a good day for the otherwise turbulent nation.
The OSCE declared these elections partially free, noting substantial progress in this election compared to previous ones. Normally I wouldn’t be so critical of those filing complaints about irregularities, but RFE/RL makes a solid point against the people doing it in this case. Albania’s Central Election Commission agreed on 19 July to repeat the 3 July ballot in at least one district, but challenges by rival politicians continue to hold up the release of final election results, Reuters reported (see “RFE/RL Newsline,” 1, 7, and 15 July 2005). A commission spokesman said that “the commission agreed in principle to ÄrepeatÅ…
The OSCE has been monitoring the electoral process and situation in Kyrgyzstan since the Tulip Revolution and has said that the polls have led to “tangible progress” for democracy and have made the country more stable. 18 July 2005 (RFE/RL) — An official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said today that this month’s presidential election in Kyrgyzstan has helped stabilize the country. Alojz Peterle, special envoy for the OSCE, spoke during a visit to Bishkek. “I see that the ÄKyrgyzÅ government is determined to continue its work and that they are preparing themselves to do what…
France is such a benighted backward place that could be so otherwise. The broadest, brightest light in all Western Civilization in recent years seems to have given all of that up to pursue America-hating instead. It’s insane. Not even the May 29 referendum on the EU constitution was entirely good in results, given the provincialism of a nation that seems to have lost its national confidence. But Franco at Barcepundit alerts us to an important exception in this trend, in an article he found about a friendly Frenchman named Nicolas Sarkozy. He is immensely popular in France, not an enemy…
It’s going to be a horror show. Sumate, the voter-rights civil society group whose leadership is now headed for Hugo Chavez’s dungeons on treason charges, warns that the next election will not be fair. Hugo Chavez has gerrymandered and manipulated it already in his favor. He can’t lose. But that doesn’t mean Venezuelans aren’t trying to fight back. Daniel reports a new blog project ahead called The Sumate Files that is well worth reading for its updates on the Sumate situation and the coming problems with holding a fair election in Hugo Chavez’s New Venezuela. Read it here.
No sheet Sherlock, Papillon’s qualified to vote in Venezuela’s next election. Yeah, that guy, the Devil’s Island movie guy, Butterflies Are Free – him – dead since 1973, he’s on the Venezuelan voter rolls. It’s that bad. Don’t believe me? Read it here. Daniellllllll!!!!!!!!!!
Franco at Barcepundit reports that it’s official – al-Qaida had every intention of influencing the Spanish election with its atrocity in Madrid last year. They found the evidence and what we suspected was true. It’s well worth reading in the wake of London’s terror bombings as well as the current wretched political situation in Spain. An excellent writeup – read it here.
An interesting poll was released the other day that shows terrorism has lost its clout among Muslims in the Middle East, while democracy has made solid gains. Ed Morrissey has more thoughts on this, which I agree with. So the question begs: Are we witnessing the beginning of a dramatic shift of opinion against extremism in the Muslim world? Perhaps, as this other recent survey shows, people in the Middle East are worried about the election of Iran’s new president. London, Jul. 15 ???????? A recent survey conducted by a research and studies website run in the United Arab Emirates…
Presidential elections are due in Belarus come September 2006, which may see a popular velvet revolution as a result. In 2004, Lukashenko falsified a referendum to give himself the ability to run for president as many times as he wants, effectively making him president for life since all elections are rigged. The following is a clear example of how a regime systematically squashes all political opposition to make such things possible. In this case, how Lukashenko has liquidated political parties across the country for various reasons. The Mogilevskiye vedomosti, which was founded by Mahilou Regional Executive Committee, published on 12…
It is going on fully four months since March’s Tulip Revolution that put Kyrgyzstan on the map for much of the west. Today, the country votes in its first presidential election since the parliamentary election revolt that led to the ousting of President Akayev. Acting-president Bakiev is seen as the frontrunner by a wide margin. Felix Kulov, who handled security in the country immedialtey after the revolution, was set to run against him but decided instead to run together with Bakiev. Should Bakiev win, he will appoint Kulov to the position of prime minister. I think it’s a basically foregone…
Kyrgyzstan will be holding its first post-revolutionary presidential elections on Sunday. I will be posting my thoughts later, but for now, here is a roundup of links to interesting reading material to prep for tomorrow’s events. – First ever televised debates held (transcript here). – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty asks, “Will the election be free and fair?“ – Bakiev out in front, and Akayev backs him. – Foreign observers and journalists allowed, except from the CIS! Bishkek, 30 June 2005 (RFE/RL) — Kyrgyzstan’s election officials have given permission to some 80 foreign groups to monitor the country’s 10 July presidential…
… By Russia! Go figure. THE international organisation that criticised the conduct of elections in Georgia before the Velvet Revolution and in Ukraine before the Orange Revolution has been accused by the Russian Government of double standards. Criticism of electoral abuses in former Soviet states by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) could ???????sometimes trigger unrest and destroy stability and is used by the extremist forces in those countries???????, said Alexey Borodavkin, Russia????????s Ambassador to the organisation. He said that the OSCE needed to introduce reforms to its procedure for election monitoring and accused the organisation of…
The election commission is delaying the results, again, in what can only be a further attempt to clean up the trail of fraud. ADDIS ABABA, 7 July (IRIN) – Final results of Ethiopia’s 15 May parliamentary election will once again be delayed until investigations into allegations of electoral fraud are completed, the National Electoral Board (NEB) chairman said on Wednesday. NEB officials had previously postponed declaring the final results of the poll from 8 June to 8 July, saying they needed time to investigate disputed results. “There was a delay and that delay is continuing and we expect it will…
The OSCE has released it’s preliminary report on its election observation mission in Albania. The EU Observer pointedly notes the positive developments made in this round while addressing its shortcomings. EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Sunday’s (3 June) elections in Albania have only partially complied with the international standards for democratic elections, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – the body in charge of observing the process – announced on Monday (4 July) in its preliminary report. “While these were overall competitive elections and media generally provided voters with a diversity of electoral information, major political parties have…
I think most of the headlines calling this a “key test” are pretty correct in that description. Albania is another transition democracy in the volatile Balkans, and transition means baby steps. This means that it will be years before investment bears fruit and real liberalism takes solid root. TIRANA (AFX) – Albanians began voting on Sunday in legislative elections seen as crucial to their country’s ambition to join the EU. A free and fair vote is crucial for Albania as it hopes to sign a stabilization and association accord with the EU this year and join the European bloc in…