THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE UPCOMING presidential election in the United States of America has once again underscored that country's blatant mockery of democratic principles. Yet, the Bush administration has had the shameless presumption to lecture the entire world about the virtues of American style of democracy. It is probably the only "democratic" country in the world that has continued to ignore the legitimacy of the popular vote in the election of its president; where the President was selected by a very small group of Supreme Court judges in the year 2000; and where the entire administration was never elected by the people.
It is inconceivable that America (which claims to be the bastion of democracy) does not have a uniform electoral system throughout the country; the voting mechanisms are totally unreliable and badly flawed; there is still widespread intimidation to discourage minority groups from expressing their democratic rights at the polls.
The electronic voting mechanisms do not allow for a recount of all the votes cast. Instead of adopting progressive electoral systems from such countries as Canada, Britain, Australia, and India, the United States has stubbornly continued to persist with its anachronistic and badly flawed electoral system.
In the last general elections in Canada, Australia and India, well over 300 million votes were cast without any problems or irregularities.
One only has to examine what transpired in Venezuela and Haiti to see the irony and hypocrisy of the American ideal of democracy.
I am, etc.,
RUPERT JOHNSON
r.b.johnson@sympatico.ca
Scarborough, Ontario,
Canada
