Democratic elections Under Assault Worldwide!

Democracy and free elections are under assault across the world. And the most important topic of discussion in the United States is whether or not Britney Spears is wearing underwear!

Lebanon's Western-backed cabinet has vowed not to cave in to calls to resign after a massive demonstration led by the pro-Syrian group Hezbollah, as protesters camped outside government offices.

By barricading government offices, and preventing the government from functioning, they hope to win by intimidation. For those with short memories, this was the tactic used successfully by the German Nazi Party in the 1930s to force their way into power.

Unable to win at the ballot box, anti-Democracy forces repeatedly this year, as in the past, have attempted to take by force, what they were unable to achieve by a vote of the people.

Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador swore himself in as Mexico's "legitimate" president Monday, launching a parallel government he hopes will prevent President-elect Felipe Calderon from governing.

The ceremony is the latest chapter in Lopez Obrador's unsuccessful battle for the presidency. He claims fraud and dirty campaign tactics were responsible for Calderon's narrow victory in the July 2 vote, and his parallel government could spend the next six years calling for street protests that have already dented the economy and prompted travel warnings from the U.S. Embassy.

And in Venezuela, where Hugo “The Body” Chavez has held office since 1998, the concept of a free and fair election, (notwithstanding the assurances of former President Carter,) is nothing more than a pipe dream. Attempts in 2004 to remove Chavez through a national referendum were quashed through voter fraud and intimidation. It appears that 2006 holds more of the same.

The opposition's biggest fear concerns the use of fingerprint machines in conjunction with electronic voting. Their ostensible purpose is to prevent multiple voting, but they are “neither necessary nor particularly useful”, according to Pedro Nikken of Ojo Electoral, an independent watchdog. Rightly or wrongly, many Venezuelans believe that because of the machines the vote will not be secret.

The government has already made public a list of the several million people who signed the petition calling for the recall referendum, using it to deny jobs and government services to “counter-revolutionaries”. In these circumstances, any belief that the vote might not be secret seems likely to hurt Mr Rosales.

“Our instructions are to vote, or we'll lose our jobs,” said a doctor working for the government's Barrio Adentro primary-health-care mission. Asked if that meant voting for Mr Chávez, she said there were “intelligence techniques” that might allow the government to know if she did not.

All the indications are that Mr Chávez does not intend this weekend's election to be his last. He has proposed to hold a referendum in 2010 to abolish a clause in the constitution, which he himself introduced, restricting presidents to two consecutive six-year terms. It appears that the opposition will be tolerated, so long as it does not threaten to take power. “There is no room in Venezuela for any project other than the Bolivarian revolution,” Mr Chávez told the rally.

Chavez’s rise to power was, in the past illegally, obtained. Having obtained that power, he shows no interest now, in ever giving it up.

These widespread demonstrations of anti-Democracy behavior appear uncomfortably close to our borders. But they are, in fact, closer still.

TALLAHASSEE — State officials Monday certified Republican Vern Buchanan won the House seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, though the loser immediately sued for a new election, arguing that touch-screen voting machines had malfunctioned.

Democrat Christine Jennings sued in Circuit Court here and a hearing is set for Tuesday. She asked for a new election in the 13th District immediately after the Florida Canvassing Commission said she lost by just 369 votes. A manual recount last week confirmed Buchanan's win, but Jennings claims voting machines malfunctioned in Sarasota County.

In the latest incarnation, Jennings is asking the court to analyze the votes that were cast and to apply statistical analysis to the “undervotes” thereby allowing the court to vote for her!

Yes, fair and freely elected governments are under assault throughout the world, even in our own country! Vigilance in needed, or we might awaken to find our liberties taken, the result of court decisions or disillusioned losers, unwilling to accept defeat!

Why does it always seem that those who claim to have the popular support of the “people” are the ones most unwilling to accept the will of those people?

And why is it that most Americans are too ignorant to care?

David Hinz 2006© All Rights Reserved