The re-election of Lukashenko in Belarus came with suspected wide-spread fraud stemming from a long early voting period. Russia has continued its devolution into executive autocracy by introducing similar measures.
From
Russia Profile on the use of early voting in Belarus
;
Belarussian opposition activists paid special attention to the conduct and volume of early voting, which began five days before Sunday's official election date.
Official figures showed that 31.3 percent of the entire electorate opted to cast their votes ahead of time, over twice the number in the last presidential election, in 2001.
Analysts said that the length of the early voting period made it particularly difficult to monitor for irregularities.
"The extent of early voting alone resulted in unfair elections," said said Tatsiana Pratsko, the president of the Belarussian Helsinki Committee.
"Ballots could easily be forged. Ballot boxes were never properly safeguarded, allowing a high degree of control on the part of the authorities. According to our data, early voting accounted for as much as a half of Lukashenko's final figures. The precincts we monitored closely during the day of the elections showed a much closer breakdown of numbers, with Lukashenko receiving 51 to 52 percent of the vote."
Dictators, autocrats and despots like the appearance of democratic legitimacy. Especially since they have to deal with the dominant west which is predominantly liberal democrat in organisation.
The Duma
has adopted similar laws to Lukashenko's for Russia
, effectively enabling electoral fraud to ensure the outcome of an election. From
Moscow News
;
The election bill, which was passed in the first of the three required readings, widens the criteria for removing parties or individuals from electoral races and allows for early voting -- a procedure Russia had already tried and abandoned, and which critics fear would allow to manipulate election results.
Government's move to consolidate their position as much as they can; and with the apparatus of state being used to the absolute maximum that can be got away with. This is true for Australia too where each electoral law change is an attempt of tilting the electoral game toward incumbent entrenchment and party advantage.
Russia has fallen into the depths of executive autocracy. Banning parties and entrenching electoral fraud through legislation are easier in such an environment.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
