International experts have strongly criticized the current rules regulating the presidential election in the USA. According to the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, headed by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the non-transparency and maximum dependence of the US election system on financial investments undermine the society’s belief in the principles of equality and democracy. In its report the commission consisting of a number of former world leaders and Nobel Prize winners says that there is an alarming tendency evident all over the world – a sharp growth of influence of the financial elite on election results.
This process is most clearly seen in today’s America, commission representatives say. According to the commission’s report, the work of the so-called political action committees (PAC) has become one of the main reasons for the loss of trust in fair elections by the US population. PACs come out in support of this or that candidate or bill and can either receive or spend a certain sum in the course of their activities. By the decision of the United States Supreme Court of 2010, it was allowed to set up the so-called super committees (Super Pac) – independent groups that have no right to support a certain candidate but that can receive unlimited donations from corporations.
Referring to the statistical data provided by New York University, the authors of the report claim that the majority of Americans are sure that super committees are used for supporting candidates bypassing the law and that they pose a serious threat to the democratic electoral system. The commission believes that elections in the USA have become dependent on the will of the country’s financial elite, which calls into question the idea of equality as such. Besides, the commission has criticized the initiative of a number States in the USA, aimed at the deprival of minorities of electoral rights by means of the introduction of new and more strict demands to access to the voting process.
Full Article: Why Does Kofi Annan criticize US Election System?: Voice of Russia.