A mixed weekend for democracy

Jubilant news in our hemisphere, as Chavez's attempts to stack the vote in Venezuela to make him dictator for life have failed. Unfortunately, in the Eastern hemisphere, Putin's perversion of democracy has kept his party in charge of the government.

Chavez was making the largest push for more power, trying to institute a government which would allow him to have unilateral control over choosing election officials, allow him to stand as "President" indefinitely, and allow him unilateral control to declare states of emergency, which would give him the ability to stridently curb civil rights.

Putin's win was a perversion of democracy, as his government imprisoned dissidents and opposition leaders, bribed and threatened to get votes, and limited the access available to election monitors. The win will keep his party in power but he will be forced to step down as President and instead take a position as Prime Minister - a much weaker post in Russia. The only slight positive news is that this opens the opportunity for a strong, democracy-focused candidate to take over the Presidency.

Chavez: Plan may have been too ambitious
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Humbled by his first electoral defeat, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reform by 51 percent to 49 percent."

Opposition activists were ecstatic as the results were announced shortly after midnight - with 88 percent of the vote counted, the trend was declared irreversible by elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.

Some shed tears. Others began chanting: "And now he's going away."

and...

Monitors say Russian vote unfair
Associated Press

MOSCOW - Foreign election observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the vote as a validation of his leadership.

"Of course, it's a sign of trust," Putin said in televised remarks. "Russians will never allow the nation to take a destructive path, as happened in some other ex-Soviet nations."

The victory of the United Russia party sets the state for Putin to stay in charge as a "national leader" even after he steps down as president next spring because of term limits.

The presidential candidate to be named by his party this month is expected to be a figurehead who would take orders from Putin or even step down early to let Putin regain his seat. Any candidate who has Putin support could be expected to win easily amid tight Kremlin's control over media and official harassment of opposition groups.