Foreign capitals make light of US election

2:00 PM

NASHVILLE - As the United States stewed over the inconclusive presidential election, there was plenty of derisive glee from foreign capitals where voting is often the butt of jokes.

In Moscow, where elections are often questioned by outside observers, the head of Russia's Central Election Commission sniffed: "Our presidential elections are conducted in more (of) a democratic fashion and are more easily understood by voters" than the U.S. elections that brought no clear winner two days after the balloting.

Less officially, the Russian Web site www.anekdot.ru joked that Russian election commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov had flown to the United States to help straighten out the election mess.

"Latest reports show (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in the lead" over Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, the site said.

In Mexico City, another place where vote fraud has been chronically alleged, the Mexican media smelled a rat north of the border.

Florida's popular Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of the presidential nominee, drew comparisons to Raul Salinas, the "awkward brother" of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas, whose 1988 election victory was sealed only after a government-run computer system tallying the vote "crashed" when early results showed an opposition candidate ahead.

"In this photo finish ... something bad is going on in Florida," said Pedro Ferriz, a commentator for Mexico City's Imagen radio.

Mexican commentators and conspiracy theorists drew parallels between the vote count in Florida and past election shenanigans that helped maintain Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in power for seven decades.

Opposition parties long alleged that the PRI, which lost its first presidential election ever last July, stuffed boxes with ballots cast by citizens long dead but still registered, among other underhanded tactics.

In Rome, home of "opera buffa" politics and governments that can change as fast as the seasons, there was open gloating over the U.S. election non-result.

"A Day as a Banana Republic," the Rome daily newspaper La Repubblica wrote in a headline about the U.S. vote.

"The first election of the new millennium has brought America into the realm of the surreal," the newspaper said.

Its banner headline "For a Fistful of Votes" - was a play on the title of Sergio Leone's famous "spaghetti Western" film 'A Fistful of Dollars,' with Clint Eastwood.

"Forty-eight hours after the vote, the most powerful nation on earth is not able to tell its citizens and the world who the 43rd president of the United States is," said Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper.

A U.S. embassy party in Beijing meant to introduce the Chinese to the joys of democracy, but wound up causing more confusion than anything else.

"It's so complicated," said 19-year-old language student Xiao Wangxin at the party for 2,000, which featured live CNN, bagels and cream cheese and a U.S. policy wonk in an Uncle Sam suit explaining how the Electoral College works.

"I don't think this system is suited to China."

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said only that "every country must decide which election method it should use according to local conditions."

China's Communist Party has ruled for more than five decades and brooks no opposition.

British bookmakers took a different approach to the U.S. vote: they let people bet on it.

Two days after Americans voted, with no clear winner in sight, British online betting firm Blue Square had Bush as the strong favorite to win the election at 5/2 on - if you put down five pounds you would get seven back including your stake - and Gore at 7/4.

- REUTERS

Links:

www.anekdot.ru

Herald Online feature: America votes