Election

Election  (“democracy”)
Interest of	• European Platform for Democratic Elections • Operation Blackout
Subpage(s)	•Election/Fraud
The event in where people choose between multiple options in a contest, usually politics.

"The public sucks, fuck hope" - George Carlin, 1993, HBO.

Elections are a part of the party political system, and a part of the "democratic" system. National elections typically take place every 4-5 years. In many, perhaps most, countries, elections are routinely won by one of just 2-3 large political parties.

Official narrative

Wikipedia writes that elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 1700s.

Concerns

Wikipedia writes that "Scholars argue that the predominance of elections masks the fact that they are actually aristocratic selection mechanisms that deny each citizen an equal chance of holding public office. Such views were expressed as early as the time of Ancient Greece by Aristotle. According to French political scientist Bernard Manin, the non-egalitarian nature of elections stems from four factors: the unequal treatment of candidates by voters, the distinction of candidates required by choice, the cognitive advantage conferred by salience, and the costs of disseminating information. These four factors result in the evaluation of candidates based on voters' partial standards of quality and social saliency (for example, skin color and good looks). This leads to self-selection biases in candidate pools due to nonobjective standards of treatment by voters and the costs (barriers to entry) associated with raising one's political profile. Ultimately, the result is the election of candidates who are superior (whether in actuality or as perceived within a cultural context) and objectively unlike the voters they are supposed to represent".

Fraud

Why Your Vote Didn't Count - AJ+, 2018

Full article: Election/Fraud

The Langemann Papers revealed that Le Cercle was active attempting to influence elections in Europe in the 1970s. In 2018, the first Integrity Initiative Leak included a file xCountry.pdf which alphabetically listed the large nation states of Europe, and the US, together with the timing of their next election. Along side most of these countries were a set of people, email address and institutional affiliation. Traditionally, voting systems used paper, and were carried out according to protocols intended to minimize the chance of fraud. In recent years, especially in the US, there has been a push towards more easily defrauded, digital systems.

Interfering

Full article: Integrity Initiative

Quite a lot of the IfS' activity was carried out under the "Integrity Initiative" label, which carried the stated desire to fight "Russian Propaganda". The director Dan Kaszeta described the group in his "Notes for Israel" as “Not just a “think tank” offering yet another discussion forum but also a “do tank”.” He added that "We have good contacts in government in UK and other governments (Argentina, Baltic States, Lithuania, etc.")

The II organised secret "clusters" of like minded people who would follow instructions from London to promote a particular message (the first Integrity Initiative Leak includes a timeline of the groups efforts to interfere in the Spanish government's appointment and thus preventing democratic processes). As with the IfS in general, a Russophobic perpetual war mentality appears to beset the II. One of the main criteria for inclusion in a "cluster" seems to be "awareness" of the "Russian threat". At least one of the documents makes explicit mention of the need to increase military spending. The leaked documents and the II/IfS publications make almost no mention of "peace", seemingly even trying to steer democratic processes even in allied countries of the UK/US.

CIA

The CIA has instigated dozens of covert regime change actions. Later attempts to reign in the CIA failed, but were effective at making its locus of operations more international and therefore harder to detect using the limited resources available to the US government. The US has attempted to overthrow more than 50 national governments, most of them being popular/democratic rather than tyrannical. While bombings with aircraft leave evidence in most cases, covert operations may be difficult to prove.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
2016 London mayoral election	The "big first test" for Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party
2021 Canadian federal election	Justin Trudeau's gamble resulted in a near identical result to 2019. He then went into coalition with Jagmeet Singh's NDP.
2021 Newfoundland and Labrador general election	The first postal voting-only election in Canada. Hampered by COVID-19 , the voting process was not simple. Unsurprisingly, the results couldn't have been better for the governing Liberals.
2023 Scottish National Party leadership election	Who will succeed Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party?
2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election	"1859 was the last time it took more than eight ballots to elect a speaker"
Belgium/Federal Election/2024	Belgian federal elections.
European Parliament/2024 Election	Critical elections in 2024
France/Election/2024	French Parliamentary elections in 2024
Nation/Election	National elections are the official method whereby "democratic" systems give people a vote, as a way to choose a political party to constitute government. They generally happen every few years according to some schedule, or more often in times of political turbulence, such as shifting political alliances. The extent to which they are "free and fair" varies from time to time and from place to place. Since about 1989 it has become de rigeur more or less worldwide. The techniques of statecraft have been aggressively developed to covertly influence the outcome.
Next Libyan presidential election	Postponed presidential election in Libya mid-COVID.
October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election	Unprecedented stitch-up?
UK/2019 European Parliament elections	The elections that ended the Premiership of Theresa May
UK/By-election	A UK local election of for the replacement of a single Member of Parliament when the seat becomes vacant between general elections.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Philip Agee	“[CIA] operations help sustain favorable operating conditions for U.S.-based multi-national corporations. These conditions, together with political hegemony, were our real goals. So-called liberal democracy and pluralism were only means to those ends. "Free elections" really meant freedom for our candidates. "Free trade unions" meant freedom for us to establish our unions. "Freedom of the press" mean freedom for us to pay journalists to publish our material as if it were the journalists' own. When an elected government threatened U.S. economic and political interests, it had to go. Social and economic justice were fine concepts for public relations, but only for that.”	Philip Agee	1987
George Carlin	“It's a big club, and you ain't in it. In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.”	George Carlin
George Carlin	“On Election Day, I stay home. Two reasons: first of all, voting is meaningless; this country was bought and paid for a long time ago. That empty shit they shuffle around and repackage every four years doesn't mean a thing. Second, I don't vote, because I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. I know some people like to twist that around and say, "If you don't vote, you have no right to complain." But where's the logic in that? Think it through: If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and you screw things up, then you're responsible for what they've done. You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote—who, in fact, did not even leave the house on Election Day—am in no way responsible for what these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess you created. Which I had nothing to do with. Why can't people see that?”	George Carlin
George Carlin	“The things that matter in this country have been reduced in choice, there are two political parties, there are a handful insurance companies, there are six or seven information centers...but if you want a bagel there are 23 flavors. Because you have the illusion of choice!”	George Carlin
Deep state	“Although elected representatives are supposed to be the ruling power we see them coming and going while the true powers in our lives — political parties, bureaucracies, business corporations, the media, institutions of law and justice, quangos, international treaty agreements, financial systems, regulators etcetera — get on with business.”	Ivo Mosley	2013
Bill Gates	“The closer you get to [government] and see how the sausage is made, the more you go, oh my God! These guys don’t even actually know the budget. . . . The idea that all these people are going to vote and have an opinion about subjects that are increasingly complex — where what seems, you might think . . . the easy answer [is] not the real answer. It’s a very interesting problem. Do democracies faced with these current problems do these things well?”	Bill Gates	2013
Carroll Quigley	“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy. … Either party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies”	Carroll Quigley	1966
The Anglo-American Establishment	“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy. … Either party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies”	Carroll Quigley	1966
Donald Trump	“I've watched the politicians. I've dealt with them all my life. If you can't make a good deal with a politician, then there's something wrong with you. You're certainly not very good. And that's what we have representing us. They will never make America great again. They don't even have a chance. They're controlled fully — they're controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, and by the special interests, fully.”	Donald Trump	June 2015
Howard Zinn	“Voting is fairly easy and convenient but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.”	Howard Zinn	April 2008

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Brief on Monitoring Moldovan 2019 Elections	Briefing	26 December 2018	Integrity Initiative Artur Gherman?	"As a conclusion, it is absolutely important for foreign missions and observers to start monitoring the Moldovan elections already now, since elections are made long before the voting date!"
Document:Discussion with Artur Gherman re the situation in Moldova, 28 01 2017	Discussion	26 December 2018	Integrity Initiative
Document:The last nail in the coffin of Moldovan democracy?	analysis	26 December 2018	Integrity Initiative

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References

• List of elections