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Popular Sovereignty and Elections

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Saved by Kassandra
on September 21, 2009 at 12:41:14 pm
 

Popular Sovereignty - Elections 

 

 

               The main problem realating to popular sovereignty and elections is that a lot of middle-east countries have governments that do not allow it's people to vote, or the government will allow them to vote, but they commit fraud in which the voters opinion actually does not count.  Article 21 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights reads:

 

  • (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
  • (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
  • (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

 

So according to the United Nations, free and fair voting processes is considered to be a basic human right.

 

Recently, there have been two major violations of this right in two different middle-east countries:

 

Afghanistan

 

In the 2009 elections in Afghanistan, voter fraud was a large issue.  There were about 30 candidates.  Karzai, one of the political condidates, won the election with 54.6% of the total votes.  The Taliban threatened to disrupt the vote, which means they openly planned to commit voter fraud. There were around 800 fake polling centers that turned in thousands of forged votes in his favor. 

 

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The Taliban tried to stop the people of Afghanistan from voting by using violence against those who vote.  Suicide bombings were very typical during the election process.  A total of 26 people were killed in Afghanistan on election day in election-day related incidents.  Police officers were killed using rockets and bombs.  Some voters had their ink-stained finger cut off by Taliban insurgents. (One's finger is stained during the voting process, to signify that he or she has voted.)

 

 

 

 

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