Editorials: The Democratic Primary Wasn’t Rigged | Ari Berman/The Nation

Hillary Clinton won the Democratic presidential primary by 387 pledged delegates and 3.7 million votes. Despite this large margin, some of Bernie Sanders’s most strident supporters have attributed Clinton’s lead to foul play, alleging that the Democratic Party’s nominating rules cost Sanders the nomination and the Clinton campaign deliberately suppressed pro-Bernie votes. These claims, which have circulated widely online, are false. My colleague Joshua Holland, who supports Sanders, has extensively debunked many of these conspiracy theories, but I want to add more detail now that the primary is over. (I’ve been neutral throughout the race and do not endorse candidates.) First off, the party’s rules were not the deciding factor. Sanders has rejected the idea that the nomination was “rigged” but has repeatedly criticized things like superdelegates and closed primaries, in which Independent and unaffiliated voters can’t participate.

Here’s what he told Face the Nation in late May:

What has upset me, and what I think is—I wouldn’t use the word rigged, because we knew what the rules were—but what is really dumb is that you have closed primaries, like in New York state, where three million people who are Democrats or Republicans could not participate, where you have situation where over 400 superdelegates came on board Clinton’s campaign before anybody else was in the race, eight months before the first vote was cast.

That’s not rigged. I think it’s just a dumb process, which has certainly disadvantaged our campaign.

Haiti: Haiti awaits elections-council decision | Miami Herald

The No. 2 finisher in Haiti’s presidential elections, who this year boycotted the runoff until sweeping changes were made to the electoral machinery, said that an audit of the balloting confirmed his declarations that the vote was tainted by “massive fraud.” Now the country’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) needs to “sanction the person who committed the fraud, the people who helped defraud,” Jude Célestin said in an exclusive interview with Radio Kiskeya in Port-au-Prince. Asked who that was, Célestin replied: “Everyone knows, the entire population knows the candidate who was the fraudster, for whom the fraud was done on behalf of.” Célestin qualified for the second round against Jovenel Moïse, the choice of former President Michel Martelly. Moïse has denied the fraud allegations and accused opponents of using them to try to kick him out of the race. His PHTK party has refused to recognize the report. A PHTK operative told the Miami Herald that Célestin has to be referring to another one of the top finishers.

Haiti: Council starts deliberating on possible election redo | Associated Press

Haiti’s electoral authorities begin deliberating Tuesday whether they should annul results of the disputed presidential election’s first round, as recommended by a special commission that reported finding significant fraud. Electoral council chief Leopold Berlanger declined to comment on the verification commission’s findings Monday night, saying his panel would need until June 6 to examine the report and announce a new election calendar for this troubled country. The Provisional Electoral Council has the final say on election matters. The leader of the verification commission, Pierre Francois Benoit, told The Associated Press that members of his panel were so troubled by their month-long review that they had no choice but to recommend starting over and scrapping a presidential run-off vote that has been postponed three times. The panel examined 25 per cent of the roughly 13,000 tally sheets from polling stations.

Serbia: Opposition Takes to Streets Claiming Election Fraud | Balkan Insight

Serbian opposition groups alleged electoral fraud at weekend polls after the latest results showed a far-right DSS-Dveri coalition has been excluded from parliament. The leaders of the coalition, supported by other three opposition parties, called a protest for Saturday to be held in front of the Electoral Commission in Belgrade. With 99.45 percent of ballots counted, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, has won nearly 50 percent of the vote, giving it at least 138 seats in the 250-member parliament.

Philippines: Comelec, PPCRV, Smartmatic officials face election sabotage charges | Manila Bulletin

Top officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and the Comelec service provider Smartmatic are facing election sabotage charges before the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) for allegedly changing the computer script (hash code) or program which may have altered the counting of the votes. Most of the respondents were not named in the 27-page complaint except for Henrieta de Villa of PPCRV and Marlon Garcia Smartmatic, the Venezuelan IT expert who allegedly changed the script together with unnamed Comelec technicians to accommodate the letter “ñ.” The complaint was filed jointly by the Mata sa Balota Movement (MBM)) and the Coalition of Clean Air Act of the Philippines which asked Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to look into the hash code switch which they claimed seriously affected the integrity of the counting of the votes in the May 9 national and local elections.

Maryland: Baltimore has long history of election problems | Baltimore Sun

Polling places in Baltimore failed to open on time. Election workers were unfamiliar with procedures, and ballot mix-ups put the outcome of contests in question. The year was 1970. The historic election that sent Maryland’s first African-American congressman, Parren J. Mitchell, to Washington was fraught with problems — problems strikingly similar to the irregularities revealed in the weeks since the city’s April 26 primary this year. A half-century ago, the botched primary led to the deployment of police to supervise the general election, an unprecedented decision to order a second round of voting in eight precincts and a congressional investigation.

Russia: Meet the woman who says she’s going to fix Russia’s rigged elections | The Washington Post

From the fringes of power, Ella Pamfilova has spent decades fighting against the odds. As Russia’s first female candidate for president, she ran on a largely symbolic ticket against Vladimir Putin in 2000, earning just 1 percent of the vote. As Russia’s human rights ombudsman, she sought compromise between harried advocates and hidebound officials. But as the newly appointed head of Russia’s Central Elections Commission, she faces an even more improbable task: ensuring that Russia’s notorious parliamentary elections this fall are free and fair. The stakes are high. Russia’s most recent parliamentary elections, in 2011, descended into farce as social media videos of ballot stuffing and accusations of mass voter fraud spawned the country’s largest pro-democracy and anti-Putin rallies in recent memory. The difference now, Pamfilova said in an interview, is that Putin has given a mandate for clean elections. And she says she is the proof.

Serbia: Opposition Maintains Pressure over Election Flaws | Balkan Insight

The four opposition coalitions said they will drop their demand for all the alleged irregularities to be fully investigated by the Republic Electoral Commission, RIK, even though all of them made it into parliament at the April 24 polls. The coalitions around the Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Enough is Enough movement and the Democratic Party of Serbia-Dveri alliance also said they will also demand reforms of Serbia’s election legislation, which they claim is full of systematic errors. Bosko Obradovic, the president of the far-right Dveri, told BIRN that the opposition will produce a final report on the parliamentary election which will sum up all the reports issued by the RIK.

Chad: Constitutional council upholds Deby re-election | AFP

Chad’s Constitutional Council has upheld President Idriss Deby’s re-election to a fifth term, confirming the results of last month’s vote that the opposition had challenged. In final results, the council said Chad’s leader of 26 years won 59.92 percent of the vote, compared with 12.77 percent for opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo and 10.61 percent for Laoukein Kourayo Medard, mayor of Moundou city. In announcing the results, the council rejected an appeal by eight opposition candidates to invalidate the April 10 election over voting irregularities.

Serbia: Opposition cries foul after ballot | AFP

Serbian opposition groups on Friday alleged electoral “fraud” at weekend polls after the latest results showed a far-right coalition has been excluded from parliament. The leaders of four groups from across the political spectrum called a protest for Saturday to be held in front of the Electoral Commission in Belgrade. With 99.45 percent of ballots counted, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has won nearly 50 percent of the vote, giving it at least 138 seats in the 250-member parliament.

Serbia: Opposition rallies in Belgrade demanding election recount | Reuters

Hundreds of Serbian opposition supporters rallied in Belgrade on Saturday demanding a nationwide recount of last weekend’s election ballots, the resignation of the election commission or a re-run of the vote, claiming fraud and irregularities. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who wants to take Serbia into the European Union, won Sunday’s election with 48.24 percent of the vote, roughly unchanged from 2014. But his Progressive Party’s majority in parliament was reduced as more parties attained the five percent vote threshold needed for seats. Left-wing and ultra-nationalist opposition parties teamed up on Saturday to protest in front of the election commission office, chanting “We want our votes” and “This is fraud”.

Venezuela: Was the 2013 Venezuelan Election Rigged? | Pacific Standard

In the popular imagination, election fraud usually takes a few forms: stuffed or disappearing ballot boxes, hijacked electronic voting machines, voter intimidation. The latter of those four tactics is somewhat harder to detect. After all, it’s not the ballot being tampered with, but rather the voter who cast that ballot. Fortunately, researchers have now figured out a way to detect “voter rigging,” as the authors of a new paper call it. Unfortunately, their method has turned up more or less exactly what you’d expect—fraud in Russia several times over the past decade, as well as in Venezuela, where voter rigging likely swayed the outcome of the 2013 race to replace Hugo Chavez. “Many elections around the world end in controversies related to alleged frauds; even in mature democracies, such as the U.S. and Canada, where voter suppression scandals have made the headlines,” write Raúl Jiménez, Manuel Hidalgo, and Peter Klimek.

Chad: President Deby wins fifth term, opposition cry foul | AFP

Chad’s veteran leader Idriss Deby has won a fifth term in office, the national electoral commission announced, extending his 26 years in power, as the opposition alleged widespread fraud. Taking more than 60 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential polls, Deby came far ahead of main opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo, who won just over 12 percent but said the vote was rigged. We “don’t recognise the outcome of this electoral stick-up”, a group of opposition politicians including Kebzabo said, alleging ballot-stuffing and the buying-up of voter cards. “Hundreds of ballot boxes have disappeared,” the group said, adding that soldiers who had intended to vote against Deby had also “disappeared”, alleging they had likely been “arrested and imprisoned”. African Union observers last week declared the elections free and fair. The organisation’s rotating presidency is currently held by Deby.

Syria: Ceasefire falls apart as Assad holds latest sham election | Al Arabiya

Predictable issues have derailed ongoing negotiations over the Syrian conflict, with the opposition resuming fighting against the Syrian regime, which has repeatedly broken the cessation of hostilities agreement that was implemented in February. In addition to the continued Assad regime bombardment of forces ostensibly included in the ceasefire agreement, the primary issue that continues to sabotage the latest efforts to bring some semblance of calm to the war-torn country and resolution to the never-ending conflict, remains unchanged: fierce disagreement over the future of Bashar al-Assad’s criminal regime. Sincere efforts to bring the conflict to an end, or carve out a path that will lead to such a reality, will continue to fail so long as they involve negotiating with parties that demand Assad remain in power. Such a proposal dismisses the fact that the Assad regime’s failure to step down years ago remains the chief reason why Syria has spiralled into hell and allowed barbaric actors, including ISIS, to flourish.

Chad: AU: Despite Irregularities, Chad Poll Credible | VoA News

Opposition politicians in Chad have claimed fraud during Sunday’s presidential election, but African Union (AU) observers say the poll, while flawed, was fair. Former Malian president and head of the AU observer mission to Chad, Diouncounda Traore, said issues included the late opening of polling stations in hard-to-access areas and poorly trained polling officers. He said he doesn’t know what will happen after the proclamation of the results, but the AU is urging all candidates and their followers to accept the verdict. He said those who are not satisfied with the results should contest them in the courts. Kamalloh Salifou Tourabi, leader of the Pan African Institute for Election Assistance observer mission, said that despite irregularities, voter participation was estimated at 85 percent. The opposition said there was fraud, including ballot stuffing.

Djibouti: Guelleh seeks fourth term, opposition candidates doubt integrity of vote | Reuters

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, was expected to win a fourth term in office in an election that began on Friday, although some opposition candidates openly doubted the integrity of the vote. Guelleh, who won the last election in 2011 with almost 80 percent of the vote, has overseen Djibouti’s economic rise as it seeks to position itself as an international port. “I am confident of the final victory,” he said after casting his vote. But a leading opposition candidate said he would not accept the election result after some voters were expelled from polling stations. “It’s part of the diet of the strategy to destabilize us,” Omar Elmi Khaireh told Reuters.

Editorials: A Marred Election in the Republic of Congo | The New York Times

Opposition politicians are right to call the election on March 20 in the Republic of Congo an “electoral holdup.” President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who has ruled the country for 32 of the past 37 years, did everything in his power to ensure he would be elected again, including ordering a cellphone and Internet blackout as voters headed to the polls — apparently an attempt to prevent information from circulating on voter turnout and possible fraud. Official results gave Mr. Sassou-Nguesso over 60 percent of the vote. The opposition complained of widespread fraud, the American State Department expressed “concerns about the credibility of the process” and the European Union lamented “a foreseeable lack of independence and transparency in the elections.”

Niger: Opposition parties reject election results | Africanews

Niger opposition parties have rejected the final round of the country’s presidential and legislative elections that took place on Sunday citing fraud. Niger’s electoral commission released results on Tuesday showing that President Mahamadou Issoufou received more than 92 percent of the runoff vote. His rival Hama Amadou received less than 8 percent of the vote, which saw a low turnout after the opposition called for a boycott. The candidates from the opposition parties in a statement have challenged any attempts by the incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou to claim victory. They have also accused the government of voter intimidation and warned of false results.

Congo: Opposition Says Its Tally Shows Incumbent Lost Presidential Vote | VoA News

Opposition candidates in elections in Congo Republic said on Wednesday that President Denis Sassou Nguesso placed no better than fourth in any major district, rejecting official partial results that gave him a commanding lead. Results of Sunday’s ballot announced by the country’s electoral commission on Tuesday, and based on returns from 72 of 111 voting districts, showed Sassou Nguesso with 67 percent of the vote. Charles Zacharie Bowao, the head of a coalition of five opposition candidates, posted its summary of preliminary results – showing Sassou Nguesso trailing others – on his Twitter account.

Kazakhstan: Analysis: Make No Mistake, Kazakhstan’s Elections Still Meaningless | RFE

The results of Kazakhstan’s lackluster parliamentary elections are in and they show that three parties will have seats in the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament. The ruling Nur-Otan party took nearly 81 percent of the vote; Ak Zhol, 7.47 percent; and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan, 7.19 percent. Wait a minute. My mistake. I am so sorry. Those are the results from the 2012 parliamentary elections. The results of the March 20, 2016, parliamentary elections show, too, that three parties will have seats in the Mazhilis. Nur-Otan got 82.15 percent of the vote; Ak Zhol, 7.18 percent; and the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan took 7.14 percent. Not sure how I could have confused the two polls.

Uganda: How to Win an Election in Uganda | Newsweek

Ugandan opposition parties are faced with a familiar conundrum—fairly sure that the election they just lost was rigged, but unsure how to prove it. There is evidence that President Yoweri Museveni’s main challenger, Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), made significant gains in many parts of the country, especially urban areas. It is also clear that intimidation and repression were widespread, including the repeated detention of Besigye in the weeks of and after polling day. But neither domestic courts nor international election monitors are likely to declare an election unfree or unfair on the basis of this kind of background manipulation, although both the European Union and U.S. State Department found the election process to be marked by a lack of transparency and worrying irregularities. At the end of the day, it is only hard evidence of ballot box stuffing or faulty vote tallying that is likely to sway them. So, do the results, published by the Electoral Commission (EC) in almost complete form towards the end of February, point to a rigged election? And if so, how was it done?

Uganda: Judges to Mbabazi – Prove Voter Bribery, Intimidation | allAfrica.com

In closing arguments yesterday in the Supreme court, lawyers for Amama Mbabazi, the main challenger to President Museveni’s re-election victory, worked harder than ever to prove the charges of voter bribery, intimidation and disenfranchisement of voters against the president. But without supporting evidence, the lawyers came for tough questioning from Chief Justice Katureebe. They also couldn’t prove that discarding the old voters’ register by the Electoral Commission affected the outcome of the presidential and parliamentary elections. The Mbabazi lawyers however, did a good job poking holes into the Electoral Commission’s handling of polling on election day and the final declaration of results. In his robust presentation, Mbabazi’s lead counsel, Mohmed Mbabazi, told court that President Museveni’s victory should be nullified because the Electoral Commission did not rely on hard copies of the declaration of results forms and tally sheets from districts when declaring the winner.

Russia: Putin Changes September Election Rules To Prop Up His ‘United Russia’ Party | Forbes

The September 18 Russian parliamentary elections will take place amidst a deep economic crisis, with oil at $30 a barrel, and with election rules deliberately designed to blunt and conceal voter disaffection. The Putin regime incurs risks with this strategy because it creates an opportunity for political forces to emerge that actually address the deep concerns of the people. It is virtually impossible for the scheming Putin to know from whence such a threat will come. Russia’s last parliamentary election (December 2011) sent tens of thousands of protesters into the streets calling for “Russia without Putin,” in outrage over the flagrant election fraud on the part of Putin’s United Russia (dubbed the “party of crooks and thieves”). The demonstrations shook Putin, who responded by cracking down hard on dissent.

Uganda: Rival of Museveni challenges presidential poll result | Reuters

One of the candidates who sought to end Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s thirty years in power in last month’s presidential vote filed a petition on Tuesday seeking to nullify Museveni’s victory due to widespread irregularities. Museveni, 71, who came to power in 1986 and is one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers, won the Feb. 18 vote with 60 percent of the votes. Former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, Museveni’s ally-turned-challenger, won less than two percent of the vote, but has accused Uganda’s security services of intimidating candidates and has questioned how the votes were tallied. Opposition candidate Kizza Besigye, who won 35 percent of the vote but has dismissed the tally as fraudulent, missed Tuesday’s deadline, with officials from his party saying Besigye’s repeated detentions had made it impossible to mount a challenge.

Uganda: How Elections Were ‘Rigged’ | allAfrica.com

Opposition stalwart Kizza Besigye has said that the February 18 general election was the worst in Uganda’s history. But how was the election rigged? Collating anecdotal evidence, SADAB KITATTA KAAYA attempts to explain how the alleged rigging happened. When the presidential and parliamentary elections ended on February 18, a fierce public debate over alleged vote rigging began and hasn’t relented since. The opposition set the tone and the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU EOM) offered the much-needed supporting arguments in its preliminary assessment of the entire electoral process.

Nevada: Hijinks, Confusion and Allegations of Voter Fraud Dominate Republican Caucuses in Nevada | VICE News

Donald Trump has won the Nevada caucuses, but not without a lot of headaches for voters and overwhelmed caucus chairs. Massive crowds, volunteer captains who failed to show up, and alleged double-voting lent a circus-like atmosphere to some of the caucus locations Tuesday night and will potentially undermine Nevada’s results. Richard Schlueter, who balloted for Trump on Tuesday, said that when he arrived at Palo Verde High School in east Las Vegas to vote the crowd was still so dense he had trouble finding the table that had been set up to accept and count ballots. Once he finally located it, Schlueter discovered that the precinct captain who was supposed to be in charge hadn’t turned up and that “some lady” had assumed the seat instead and began checking the IDs of voters who crowded around the table. “This caucus is a chaotic thing,” said Schlueter, a retired nuclear submarine engineer. “We don’t know who’s who, who’s voting for what. Some precinct captains are very good and very serious about their precincts, but mine didn’t even bother to show.”

Uganda: EU mission calls on Uganda to release detailed election results | Reuters

A European Union mission urged Uganda on Thursday to release detailed results from last week’s presidential election, which extended President Yoweri Museveni’s 30-year rule but which the opposition has called fraudulent. Uganda’s Electoral Commission declared Museveni, 71 and in power since 1986, the winner of the Feb. 18 vote with about 60 percent of the vote. The EU’s Election Observation Mission statement was released soon after an aide to Kizza Besigye, the main challenger, said Besigye had been arrested for the sixth time in about a week. Besigye, who challenged Museveni in three previous elections, was also blocked from leaving his house on Wednesday, when local elections were held across Uganda. Human rights groups say they have been blocked from meeting with him.

Uganda: Opposition Gathers Evidence to Challenge Election Outcome | VoA News

Uganda’s main opposition party says it’s working hard to gather evidence to legally challenge the outcome of the February 18 general election. Uganda’s electoral law says challenges can be filed up to 10 days after results are announced. Mugisha Muntu, chairman of the Forum for Democratic Change, said the party was doing everything possible to meet the deadline, despite what he said had been continuous harassment and intimidation by state security operatives. Muntu noted that the intimidation followed the frequent arrests and subsequent release of Kizza Besigye, the FDC presidential candidate. “We started gathering evidence on Saturday, right after we found out that there were huge discrepancies between what was being announced and what we’ve been gathering from our own polling stations,” he said. Since then, he added, “our presidential candidate … has been taken to the police cells several times.”

Uganda: U.S. criticizes Uganda election, says concerned about Besigye’s arrest | Reuters

The United States has criticized the handling of Uganda’s disputed presidential election and raised concerns about the house arrest of an opposition leader who failed to end President Yoweri Museveni’s 30-year rule. Museveni, one of Africa’s longest serving leaders and a U.S. ally, was declared winner on Saturday but opponents rejected the outcome of the election. European Union and Commonwealth observers have also criticized the handling of Thursday’s poll. Main opposition candidate Kizza Besigye was arrested three times this week and alleges the police have put him under house arrest and blocked his electronic communication. Besigye has described the election as a sham and another challenger, Amama Mbabazi, said the poll was “fundamentally flawed

Uganda: Museveni wins fifth term, opposition brands vote a ‘fraud’ | AFP

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni won a fifth term on Saturday, extending his three-decade rule in a vote rejected as fraudulent by an opposition leader under house arrest and criticised by the international community. The veteran 71-year-old won 60 percent of the vote in the sometimes chaotic elections, far ahead of the 35 percent garnered by detained opposition chief Kizza Besigye, whose house was surrounded by dozens of armed police in riot gear. Large numbers of police and troops have been deployed on the streets of the capital Kampala, which appeared calm immediately after the widely expected victory for Museveni was declared. Besigye slammed the results as a fraud, saying in a message to the international community: “Should you ratify the results of these sham elections, at least have the courage to admit that you do not care about democracy or human rights in Africa.”