Is the Electoral Process in Crisis?

Today's news from Moscow, pulled from the wire services first (once again) by Al Jazeera English, reminds us that the electoral crisis in Russia is as great as it is in Pakistan. The two situations are unpleasantly parallel: Groups opposed to the administration in power try to organize protests over the fairness (or lack thereof) of the electoral process and are stopped in their tracks by the exercise of brute force. The only thing more unpleasant is the extent to which our own President has declared the leaders of these two countries to be his "soul-mates." If our President is sincere in this particular "declaration from the heart," one has to wonder where the affinity lies. Is the Bush administration observing (if not using) Pakistan and Russia as "laboratories" for testing hypotheses concerned with how administrative authority can control the electoral process? Considering the disarray in the activities leading up to the selection of a candidate from the Democratic party, the investigation of such hypotheses may be unnecessary. On the other hand, if one takes approval ratings into account, the current power structure is going to need more than yet another close-call decision resulting from a confused and frustrated electorate. They are going to need a slam-dunk, which seems as unlikely as ever in a country that continues to be so ideologically divided (possibly as a consequence of the machinations of that current power structure). The hypothesis that "the rest of us" should be exploring is whether or not our administration will play a state-of-emergency card not unlike the one recently played in Pakistan. At the very least this is a time when the other two branches of our government should own up to the extent to which our separation-of-powers principles have been so severely strained and exercise the full extent of their respective authorities to right the balance before that balance is knocked off of its pedestal!

Meanwhile, a report filed by Enrique Andres Pretel for Reuters indicates that at least one of our President's nemeses may be facing a similar situation:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters oppose Chavez's proposed raft of constitutional changes to expand his powers, compared with 39 percent in favor, a survey by respected pollster Datanalisis showed.

Just weeks ago, Chavez had a 10-point lead for his proposed changes in the OPEC nation that must be approved in a referendum, the polling company said.

The setting for this particularly story, however, is different from those in Russia and Pakistan. It may well be that Venezuelans are cultivating a new "sense of self" in the global arena, due as much to a cultural identity being promoted by Gustavo Dudamel as to the economic impact of their oil resources. That sense of self is also a sense of respect, which may have been strained by the sort of public face that Chavez presented, not only in his confrontation with the King of Spain but also in his behavior at the recent OPEC summit. On the other hand Luis Vicente Leon, who runs Datanalisis, is cautioning us all to remember that Chavez still controls powerful political machinery; so his referendum could still pass with the sort of slam-dunk which our own administration so covets. Nevertheless, the poll results give us an appreciation for the global scope of the values upon which our own country was founded and should remind us that those values can no longer be confined to our own (idiosyncratic or ideological?) national perspective.