OSCE condemns Russia election[cnn- putin used vote manipulation like bush]

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/08/russia.poll/

OSCE condemns Russia election
From CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty and Correspondent Ryan Chilcote

Monday, December 8, 2003 Posted: 8:07 AM EST (1307 GMT)

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- International election observers have harshly criticized the pre-election process of Russia's parliamentary elections, saying it was biased towards the main pro-Kremlin party.

Preliminary election results show the pro-state United Russia party -- one of 23 parties on the ballot -- on its way to significant gains in the 450-seat Duma, with lesser pro-Kremlin parties also gaining ground.
<snip>

Voice Association director Lilia Shabanova said that while the violations in the pre-election process exceeded her organization's expectations, incidents that occurred the night before the vote were "completely unexpected."
"The electoral commissions did not accept complaints," she said. "Our observers were even threatened that if they write complaints they won't be allowed to observe the vote count."
Shabanova said the top problems her observers saw were with the voter lists, which she said were not properly bound and had been purged of many voters, including those who did not vote in the last election.
"There was an enormous amount of violations during the ballot count to the extent that many of the observers simply weren't able to see anything," she said. "For example, our observer in Samara said the ballots weren't examined individually, they were leafed through in a pile without pulling them apart."
Shabanova said Voice Association had not expected "that kind of behavior fro the election officials.
"It's too early to call it a falsification before we're done analyzing it all," she said, "but I think they were orchestrated."
Communist party leader Geenady Zyuganov dismissed the vote as "nothing to do with democracy." (Full Story)
<snip>

[NJCher]

1. this has been all over the news this morning

It's a big deal if it's Russia but it can't even be mentioned if it's the U.S.A.


Cher

[seemslikeadream]

3. Vikant Corp. owned by Alex Kantarovich of Minsk, Belorussia

supplied the control cards to ES&S. When The SPOTLIGHT inquired where Vikant cards are produced, Kantarovich said,"I cannot disclose where the cards are made," but admitted that they are not made in America.

Kantarovich told The SPOTLIGHT that he has been in America for 11 years but declined to discuss his employment prior to running Vikant Corp., saying, "I don't want to disclose that information."

Kantarovich said he had obtained his degree in the Soviet Union and intially refused to answer questions about how his product was chosen for the ES&S voting equipment.

It is "inside information that I cannot disclose," he added.
http://www.voxpolitics.com/weblog/archives/000186.html

[KoKo]

4. SLAD, this link doesn't go to the article you mention from "voxpolitics."

At least I couldn't find anything in the article from Boland about Kantarovich. Do you have better link?

[seemslikeadream]

5. Look at the last four paragraphs.

and this Kantarovich guy actually threaten the reporter back in 2000 for reporting on him. Kantarovich also has something to do with investment bank Aton
http://www.aton.ru/en/news/publication.asp?id=5660&page=4&order=pubdate&type=publication

[seemslikeadream]

7. More about Kantarovich

Alex Kantarovich, Chief Stratiegist. Mr. Kantarovich joined Aton Capital in 2002 as chief strategist, also covering Norilsh Nickel and Sberebank. Prior to that he was a senior analyst at Enskilda Securities, responsible for covering European ITseervice and software companies. In 1997-1999 Mr. Kantarovich was an analyst at ABN ANRO in Russia, where he was also Head of Russsian research, covering Russian telecoms and the auto sector. Later, he worked as an analyst at PaineWegger (now a menber of the UBS group).

He became a CFA charter holder in 2000 and his education includes an MBA from Georgia State University (Atlanta). Fluent in English and Russian.
http://research.aton.ru/themes/research/materials-index.asp?folder=1557

[Terran]

2. Ironic reporting of it on NPR this AM

The reporter described how Russia's state media was a cheerleader for Putin's party's candidates while running relentlessly negative coverage of the other parties' people...or just ignored them altogether.

Hmm, sound a little familiar?

[Aidoneus]

6. one of the great mass murderers of our time is crooked as well?

who'd a thunk that? :eyes:

[SadEagle]

8. Some irregularity complaints from one of the opposition parties

Yabloko, one of the pro-democratic opposition parties that lost badly in the parliamentary elections has a list of some irregularities on ther web site. Note that the party is considered by most Europeans (and Russians) to be a center-right party, but they're probably pretty close to center by our believes -- their platform does call for help for the needy, elderly, etc. (The same is also true about the other opposition party, Union of Right-wing Forces, which is a bit more to the right).

Also, an important note about who won: basically, the only true opposition party that passed the 5% mark are the communists.

Anyway, back to the claimed irregularities, from, and other pages
http://www.yabloko.ru/Press/2003/0312072.html

- Some election sites had their power cut off
- Moscow's district 162: ballot boxes not opened, but "checked with a flashlight"
- Some districts handed out ballots to voters not on the poll books
- A precint had turn out 2.3 times larger than the number of registered voters


Note that the alternate counts done by communists and the two pro-democratic opposition parties actually claims that the two parties qualified. Fun, eh? Of course, this is from the big losers of the official count, but still.

[Dover]

9. During the Florida 2000 election, wasn't it suggested that Russians

participate somehow in monitoring the election? Ironic.

My memory isn't that great, but I remember scratching my head over that one....it just didn't fit. But maybe it does fit afterall.
If anyone has a link I'd sure like to read it again.

This is interesting regarding the oversight of the 2000 election -

http://www.aceeeo.org/missions/missions/amang.html

The U.S. presidential elections-2000.

Report on the experiences of ACEEEO’s election observers

The Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO) established in 1991, will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. ACEEEO was set up in Budapest with the participation of election officials from eight countries in the region. The organization was established after a conference, where the political and professional experiences of the first free elections after the political transformation were discussed. During the discussions, the need for a regular international exchange of ideas was strongly emphasized. The founders, among them election experts of the former-Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, aimed to set up extensive educational (training) programs for elections officials in the region, in order to develop democracy effectively, to prevent and minimize election fraud and to avoid technical errors in the organization of elections. Hungarian officials needed to learn from the experience abroad, since the first round of the 1990 parliamentary elections became notorious for having “no data”. The creation of the association was supported both morally and financially by the Washington-based “The International Foundation for Election Systems” (IFES), who were also organizers of the conference in Budapest.

...snip...

Short-term observers focus on the election day itself and are there to observe its legality. The international election observers write down their experiences; in case they observe illegal activity they cannot take any direct steps, however, they have the right to report the problems encountered to the election committee and publicize them in the press. Additionally, our experts have taken part in the preparation and organization of elections as members of delegations in various international organizations.

What international sanctions have been introduced to counter illegal elections activity? Actually, they are the expression of political opinion by foreign countries and international associations concerning the legality and legitimacy of power in a given country. This kind of a political ‘sanction’ could have a serious effect on a country, especially if it is one of the emerging democracies.

In 1990, European heads of states and prime ministers signed an international convention enabling every European country to take part in the election of any other European state by allowing them to send observers. The by-laws of the ACEEEO state that every member country has the right to participate as an international observer in an other member country. The U.S. is not a participant to the European convention, but it is a supporting member of the ACEEEO. The U.S. has now also made it possible for the ACEEEO (with Russian and Hungarian representatives) to take part in the 2000 U.S. presidential elections as international election observers..cont'd

[tom_paine]

10. Sounds like the Bushevik plan has been taken note of...

...and Totalitarian Darkness spreads across the world.

Can it be stopped? Only time will tell, but we must never give up trying to stop it!