Guyana Chronicle
March 29, 2001

Former US President Jimmy Carter who headed an observer team to the recent general election said on Monday he has seen elections conducted better in other countries such as Guyana than in the USA.

Speaking of the recent election here to CNN, Carter said:
"It was almost a perfect election in that there were no errors basically in the way ballots were marked and later counted." He also said. "And we don't have anything like that in this country. We have a long way to go in meeting the standards of most democracies on earth."

Carter noted that 88 percent of registered voters in Guyana went to the polls, a turnout far higher than typical for U.S. presidential elections. "We have about as low a turnout as any developed country and we also have more errors in our voting places than any other country in which I've been involved and we have less incentive to make those corrections," he said. According to the CNN report, he suggested turnout could be boosted if election day were to fall on a holiday, such as Veterans Day, to make it more convenient for voters to get to the polls.

"Veterans, including myself, would be very proud to have us choose a president and U.S. senators and congressmen and other state officials on our holiday".