THERE'S NO doubt that the ticket led by ... President ... will win a landslide victory in December's ... elections. Mr. ... is genuinely popular. Also, his government dominates the media, which saturate the country with his propaganda. And serious opposition candidates have ... from the ballot. So why is Mr. ... afraid of international election monitors?
After weeks of stalling, ... told the [monitoring organization] this week that it would be allowed to send no more than 70 observers to monitor the vote, compared with 450 in the ... election. The time frame of the mission will also be curtailed: Normally, [electoral]observers arrive months in advance, but this year they will have at best a few weeks. An [electoral observers]spokesman called the restrictions "unprecedented" and said that they "may seriously limit the possibility for a meaningful observation."
Sadly, the [electoral organization]looks like a soft target for the ... hardball diplomacy. Its current chairman, ..., has kept quiet about these brazen demands while trying to strike a deal with .....
If anywhere you put words like Chavez or Caracas, you were wrong. It is an editorial about how Putin is working out his electoral fraud scheme. You can read the complete Washington Post editorial here.
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