Posted on 12/05/2006 3:33:06 PM PST by Kitten Festival
Latin America: Amazing how well totalitarians tend to fare in elections. Venezuela's was a big win for Hugo Chavez that, in the absence of fraud, the world is likely to approve. But that doesn't make it all free or fair.
Chavez won Sunday's election against challenger Manuel Rosales in a 61%-38% landslide, according to Venezuela's CNE election board. The victory margin was unusually high, but Rosales, to his credit, conceded gracefully, sparing Venezuela a Mexico-style electoral debacle. Uniting all the opposition for the first time, Rosales did well and lost honorably.
It is likely that observers from the Carter Center, the European Union and the Organization of American States, who have been watching this election for the past three weeks, will certify it for Chavez, giving him the veneer of democratic credibility he craves.
We see no signs of fraud, but there are troubling aspects to this race that suggest the outcome was not entirely free or fair.
How did Chavez win so easily? It begins from the electoral foundation. Chavez controlled the entire election apparatus, which raises questions about objectivity and confidence. All but one of Venezuela's CNE electoral board members are Chavista loyalists. In all their rulings, they've never shown anything but absolute allegiance.
The Chavista use of electronic voting machines cut confidence further. Credible computer scientists such as Johns Hopkins' Avi Rubin have noted that it's impossible to determine if a vote that is electronically transmitted to a distant totalization center actually reflects a voter's choice, even if a receipt is printed.
Worse yet, voting machines, combined with fingerprint machines, have been shown to have capacity to violate ballot secrecy. With Chavez officials threatening government workers to vote for their man or be fired, this amounts to intimidation that probably contributed to Chavez's wide margin.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Have terms limited been removed from the Venezuelan constitution? Their constitution was apparently changed recently.
Coming soon to a precinct near you...
I read that the answer is currently no, but that Chavez is agitating to have that changed and he has stacked the deck with his hacks in the places that do the voting on said change...
When boiling a frog, it's best to raise the water temp slowly.
Yep, that's been his strategy.
Use the "Chavez method".
With AFSCME, they could win easily if they threaten all the gubmint workers with firing.
<< With Chavez officials threatening government workers to vote for their man or be fired, this amounts to intimidation that probably contributed to Chavez's wide margin. >>
Been studying the Singapore/Harry Lee model.
Which Harry (no flies on Harry) likely picked up from our very own "Democrats."
<< Coming soon to a precinct near you .... >>
You kidding?
Already came.
Around 1928.
Don't be so hard on Harry. Harry never impoverished his locals. He told them to go out and get a job and quit looking to him for handouts. Harry was better than nothing, and certainly better than any of the local talent in his regional neighborhood. Harry wasn't perfect but he was pretty good. I like the guy.
This election is a great example of Stalin's
saying " It does not matter who votes . It only matters who counts the votes."
This guy stole the last election and stole this one too.
<< Harry never impoverished his locals. >>
You kidding?
For 25 years having taxed 40% off the top of every Singaporean's income, Harry's nepotism driven family and (PAP/Temasek) gang of carefully cloned cretinous and essentially communistic cronies have blown Scores of Billions of Dollars of Singaporeans' so-called "superannuation funds" (CPF) on some of the world's dumbest "investments," including a Hundred Billion or so on an "industrial" development in China and, more recently, around One Point Nine Billion (of which more than a Billion and a Quarter Dollars were written off almost with hours!) on the skulduggery-rife "purchase" of Thailand's Thaksin's 'phone company. Temasek Holdings "manages" Billions and has yet to make even 3% on its "investments" in any given year.
Meanwhile, as the gap between the mega rich and the working poor widens by the hour, when Singaporeans reach "retirement age" they find that elusive date is moving away from them so darned fast that most of them will die of very very very very old age before the Ponzi scam that Harry has created there will deliver them a Brass Razoo of their own government "invested" dough.
If the Venezuelan people can be bought, they're not worth the price...
40% is not outrageous in most parts of the world and in any case, it goes to one's health and retirement accounts, that one can use later. It's not theft. If you think Harry's a problem, check out Harry's neighbors.
<< 40% is not outrageous in most parts of the world and in any case, it goes to one's health and retirement accounts, that one can use later. It's not theft. If you think Harry's a problem, check out Harry's neighbors. >>
I have lived and worked in Asia for more than 40 years and keep homes in two South East Asian countries.
The 40% I'm referring to isn't tax, per se but is the mandatory "contribution" to the "Central Provident Fund" upon which Harry's gang once guaranteed a 6% annual return and repayment in full, with interest, upon the "beneficiary" reaching the then "retirement age" of 55. (It's now about 75 years of age and returns only a percentage of the owner's contributions)
Income, import, motor vehicle and point of sale taxes are also high and are on top of the off-the-top 40% CPF tax.
As for the neighborhood, so let's concede that Harry is a sophisticated corrupt politician in a region of less sophisticated corrupt politicians. Does moral relativity make him less corrupt? No way. And even if it did, he would lose points for the fact Singapore is also the region's biggest money launderer, harbors the region's gangsters and major drug producers and runners and is both the banker for and is the investment arm of the region's drug producers, sex-slave-traffickers and illegal loggers et al.
Harry is a sanctimonious hypocrite who, along with his cronies, waxes fat on the region's crime.
But the buses and the MRT run on time and the taxis are plentiful and cheap.
You don't think USA "citizens" can't be bought?
Dems buy votes via entitlement promises.
And it works.
90% blacks
75% Hispanics
50% whites
83% Jews (well, stupidity helps)
In that particular post, I was taking aim at the Venezuelans who voted for Chavez. But, yes, there are votes for sale just about everywhere, that's for sure.
Actually, I fully agree with your point. Any voters, anywhere, whose vote is for sale ultimately cheapens the electoral process for all of us.
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