schneider@vlnvax.DEC (12/13/84)
Associated Press (reprinted without permission)
WASHINGTON - A private panel said yesterday that last month's
presidential election in Nicaragua, although flawed, was an essentially
honest process that featured political give-and-take, meaningful choices
for the electorate and an apparently accurate vote count.
The conclusions of the five-member commission differ sharply from
those of the Reagan Administration, which has described the Nov. 4
balloting as an "electoral farce without any meaningful political
opposition."
The ticket of the ruling Sandinista party, headed by President-
elect Daniel Ortega, won 62.8 percent of the vote against six other
parties. The turnout was reported to be 75 percent.
The panel issssued a 60-page report that assailed the United
States' role in the process. It said the Reagan Administration
"consistently sought to undermine and discredit the elections by
critisizing the fairness of the process, by encouraging the abstentions
of various parties and by lobbying other governments to critisize
the process."
The day after the election, the State Department said the United
States "consistently supported the opposition efforts to participate
in a meaningful election process." It accused the Sandinistas of
manipulating "every aspect of the electoral process" in an attempt
to project widespread popular support.
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I expect the right-wing readers who swallow everything Ronnie says
hook, line and sinker to start bitching about the "liberal" panel
Associated Press, etc. I say let 'em bitch.
Daniel Schneider
DEC, Marlboro, MA
{decvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vlnvax!schneiderekrell@ucla-cs.UUCP (12/17/84)
In article <229@decwrl.UUCP> schneider@vlnvax.DEC writes: > > The conclusions of the five-member commission differ sharply from >those of the Reagan Administration, which has described the Nov. 4 >balloting as an "electoral farce without any meaningful political >opposition." I watch everyday the Mexican evening news, broadcasted here in LA by the local spanish TV station. As you might guess, they are very critical of the US policy towards Central America as they oppose any outside intervention. Their coverage of the Nica- raguan elections began months before the actual elections and they ended up admitting that the elections were really a fraud. I was surprised by that conclusion since I knew from watching daily the news broadcast what their position was, but I guess they just couldn't hide the truth. Could you ? ... -- Eduardo Krell UCLA Computer Science Department ekrell@ucla-locus.arpa ..!{sdcrdcf,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!ekrell