Free Republic

For the head of Libya's national election commission, the method by which Americans vote is startling in that it depends so much on trust and the good faith of election officials and voters alike. "It's an incredible system," said Nuri K. Elabbar, who traveled to the United States along with election officials from more than 60 countries to observe today's presidential elections as part of a program run by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Your humble Cable guy visited polling places with some of the international officials this morning. Most of them agreed that in their countries, such...

London 29.08.05 | Jorge Rodriguez, the almighty head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), presented recently with great pomp a book entitled "15.08.04 Una experiencia democrática Referendo Revocatorio Presidencial" (translation 15.08.05 a democratic experience presidential recall referendum). One must assume that Rodriguez feels very proud of his performance as head of the CNE and for that reason had a book produced in which, talking in the first person, he entertains readers with all sorts of personal and subjective views about Venezuela, its electoral entity and processes. However someone within his 'independent electoral' institution decided to play mind games with this...

London 02.08.05 | Some sources report an odd meeting a few days ago in Caracas' military base Fort Tiuna. The assistants: President Hugo Chavez, VP Jose Vicente Rangel, electoral chief Jorge Rodriguez, Minister of Defence Orlando Maniglia and Smartmatic's 'wunderkinds' Antonio Mujica and Alfredo Anzola. The get together was called by Chavez on July 12 to have the number of votes in the coming elections fixed, for chavista democracy must be showcased to the world as a thriving one. And what better than 10 million votes to prove it?