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 published 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 periodicity of the vote was only international obligation relevant for democratic elections that was fully observed, 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.
Among the shortcomings of the report draws attention to the fact that over 50 million of Americans are denied the right to vote for one reason or another.
“Racial minorities” suffer from such violations of rights more often than any other group, experts claim. In particular, only 62 per cent of African-Americans and only about a half of Latino Americans — all citizens of the US — were included in voting lists throughout the country.
Commenting on the principle of freedom of election, the authors of the document stated that bosses in American companies often “help” their employees to make their choice through threat of dismissal.
As for a secret ballot — yet another fundamental international obligation for democratic elections — it was far from ideal as well, since voters in America are allowed to have their say via e-mail or fax.
The US system of election campaign sponsoring also came under fire as it permits anonymous donations to candidates, while funds have no upper limits.
“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,” the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Lower House, Aleksey Pushkov told Izvestia.
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.
