U.N. Observers Urged for U.S. Election

Seven American activist groups asked the United Nations on Monday to provide international observers for next month’s U.S. presidential election.

A petition delivered to the U.N. Economic and Social Council said that only the U.N. could “give us recourse to international bodies beyond those within our own national and state governments” in case of a repeat of the problems seen in the 2000 election, which President Bush won after a protracted ballot fight in Florida that ended in the Supreme Court.

Grace Ross of the Economic Human Rights Project, based in Somerville, Mass., said the nongovernmental groups decided to seek action from the Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC, after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan turned down a request for international observers from 13 members of Congress, led by Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas). Annan said the U.N. needed an invitation from the U.S. government, not Congress.

Ross argued that although governments needed to go through the U.N. General Assembly, nongovernmental organizations could request observers through ECOSOC.

If its 54 elected member nations approve, the ECOSOC president could then ask Annan to send observers, she said.

Other petition signers include the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, based in Philadelphia; the National Welfare Rights Union and the Michigan Welfare Rights Union, based in Detroit; the Independent Progressive Politics Network, headquartered in Bloomfield, N.J.; Seacoast Peace Response, based in Portsmouth, N.H.; and the North Shore Massachusetts chapter of the Alliance for Democracy.