7 U.S. Groups Ask U.N. for Vote Observers

[cal04]

Seven American activist groups asked the United Nations on Monday to provide international observers for next month's presidential election.A petition delivered to the U.N. Economic and Social Council said that only the U.N. can ``give us recourse to international bodies beyond those within our own national and state governments'' in case of a repeat of the problems seen in the 2000 election, which President Bush won after a protracted ballot fight in Florida.

Grace Ross of the Economic Human Rights Project, based in Somerville, Mass., said the non-governmental groups decided to seek action from the Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC, after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan turned down a request for international observers from 13 members of Congress, led by Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex. Annan said the U.N. needed an invitation from the U.S. government, not Congress.

Ross claimed that while governments need to go through the U.N. General Assembly, non-governmental organizations could request observers through ECOSOC. If its 54 elected member nations approve, the ECOSOC president could then ask Annan to send observers, she said.
The United States would have to grant permission to any observers that the ECOSOC wanted to send.

The petition ``strongly supports'' the presence of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 55-nation security group invited by the Bush administration to monitor the election. Bush faces Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry.But the seven groups say it's not clear that the European observers will have
the force of international law behind them since they are invited guests.



http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-UN-US-Election-Observers.html

[bloom]

1. Yes!!

I hope this happens.

:bounce:

[jdj]

2. From now on til past peak oil

the national elections should be observed here.

[MaineDem]

3. Kick (nt)