飞云
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作者:飞云 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
扭腰時報:今日伊拉克民主投票不及1967年南越民主投票成功,當年投票率8成3
From New York Times (9/4/1967)
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were surprised and
heartened
today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election
despite
a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million
registered
voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals
threatened
by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy
the
election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary
assessment of
the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
Pending more detailed reports, neither the State Department nor the
White
House would comment on the balloting or the victory of the military
candidates, Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, who was running for
president, and
Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, the candidate for vice president.
A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President
Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes
in
South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional
development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson
gave his
personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the
chief of
state, in Honolulu in February.
The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon
Government,
which has been founded only on coups and power plays since
November, 1963,
when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta.
Few members of that junta are still around, most having been ousted or
exiled
in subsequent shifts of power.
Significance Not Diminished
The fact that the backing of the electorate has gone to the generals
who have
been ruling South Vietnam for the last two years does not, in the
Administration's view, diminish the significance of the constitutional
step
that has been taken.
The hope here is that the new government will be able to maneuver with
a
confidence and legitimacy long lacking in South Vietnamese politics.
That
hope could have been dashed either by a small turnout, indicating
widespread
scorn or a lack of interest in constitutional development, or by the
Vietcong's disruption of the balloting.
American officials had hoped for an 80 per cent turnout. That was the
figure
in the election in September for the Constituent Assembly. Seventy-
eight per
cent of the registered voters went to the polls in elections for local
officials last spring.
Before the results of the presidential election started to come in, the
American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 80 per
cent
because the polling place would be open for two or three hours less
than in
the election a year ago. The turnout of 83 per cent was a welcome
surprise.
The turnout in the 1964 United States Presidential election was 62 per
cent.
Captured documents and interrogations indicated in the last week a
serious
concern among Vietcong leaders that a major effort would be required
to render
the election meaningless. This effort has not succeeded, judging from
the
reports from Saigon.
[B]NYT. 9/4/1967: p. 2.
作者:飞云 在 罕见奇谈 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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