Russian Election Tsar Comments On U.S. Vote

Prague, 4 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Russian Central Election Commission Chairman Aleksandr Veshnyakov, who observed the 2 November U.S. presidential election in California, said on 3 November that electronic voting in the United States "does not provide a 100 percent guarantee against possible manipulations of the elections," ITAR-TASS reported.

He said that Russia is looking at electronic-voting systems and intends "to test a system of this kind on the quiet as early as next year."

Veshnyakov also said that Russia should not adopt a system similar to the U.S. Electoral College and that it should not hold elections on working days as the United States does.

"Russia and the United States can learn from one another regarding the practice of holding elections," Veshnyakov said on Ekho Moskvy on 3 November. "America could learn the Russia lesson of safeguards against all sorts of machinations, to which some candidates sometimes resort."

[For reaction from around the world to the U.S. presidential election, see RFE/RL's webpage "World Reacts To U.S. Election".]