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US relieved after election passes without controversy

* OSCE says US elections ‘demonstrated the essential principles of a pluralistic democracy’

WASHINGTON: Despite occasional long queues and isolated instances of voting machine malfunctions, the election in the United States avoided the pitfalls of 2000 and 2004 and passed without fiasco or controversy.

A record number of voters turned out to take part in the historic election won by Barack Obama, but there was no repeat of the drama and problems that marred the previous two elections. Republican John McCain conceded defeat early in the evening to his Democratic rival as soon as polls closed on the West coast.

Four years ago, Democrat John Kerry had refused to concede to George W Bush until the day after the election because he was convinced he had won the battleground state of Ohio. In 2000, the problems were worse: dispute over who had won the state of Florida lasted for more than a month before a Supreme Court ruling handed victory to Bush over Democrat Al Gore.

The election monitoring body from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said in an assessment that Tuesday’s elections “demonstrated the essential principles of a pluralistic democracy.” But it also stressed the need for reforms to restore confidence in the system shaken by previous scandals. “The concerns that arose during previous elections have not been fully addressed in some states,” the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights said.

Highlighting fraudulent voter registration, disenfranchisement of voters, and the malfunctioning of voting systems as concerns for the public, it also stressed the lack of uniform election rules across US states. “The interpretation and implementation of federal laws lacked consistency,” it said.

The Election Protection association, a non-partisan voter protection group, agreed in its analysis of the election process. It said that it had received 200,000 calls from voters on its hotline which testified to the need for comprehensive electoral reform. “The most prevalent and alarming challenge to our electoral process today came in the form of voter registration problems,” it said. It identified improving the registration process, combating misinformation designed deliberately to confuse voters, improving information and equipment at polling stations and expanding early voting. “Early voting takes pressure off the system by easing the crush on election day,” said the group.

US media also reported some voting problems, with people at some polling stations having to wait five hours, sometimes in the rain, according to CNN, which also had a voter problem hotline.

In races for seats in the Congress, however, several contests are still unresolved the day after the election, in particular in Minnesota where votes for Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat and comedian Al Franken are being recounted. “We’re a long way to go before we can say that an election is error free,” said Cra. afp

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