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Comparison of Electoral Process
in South America

Objectives:
Students will:
1. Consider how officials are elected in their countries of study or origin.
2. Examine the election fraud allegations in Peru by reading and discussing "Peruvian's Lead in Vote Prompts Charge of Fraud," April 11, 2000.
3. Create a poster documenting the election processes in their assigned countries.
4. Assess the election practices in their assigned countries.

Guiding Question:
How did George W. Bush get elected? What was the process and what problems did we have with that process?
(Answer this question in your journals. Feel free to discuss with your team.)

In your groups, read and discuss, "Peruvian's Lead in Vote Prompts Charge of Fraud" answering on the following questions:

1. Who is Alberto Fujimori, and why are there threats of civil disobedience being leveled at his administration?

2. What "irregularities" have occurred to lead people to suspicions of fraud in the election of Fujimori?

3. Who is Alejandro Toledo? What action did he take when the first accusations of counting irregularities were made?

4. What caused the delays in tallying the votes for the election?

5. What decision does the United States and the Organization of American States have to make regarding the Peruvian election?

f. How has Fujimori been an ally to the United States?

6. What allegations were been made to election monitors regarding election fraud?

7. How did the Peruvian Election Office and the Fujimori party responded to the allegations of election fraud?

8. How did the Clinton administration responded to the allegations of fraud in the Peruvian election?

Each group will research the election process of their assigned country using the following questions as a guideline:

--Who votes in the elections?

--How are candidates elected?

--Who regulates the elections, and how?

After gathering the information using their textbook, book encyclopedia, Encarta and the WWW, each group creates a "How It Works" poster of their findings, diagramming the election process in their country.

  1. Group 1 - Colombia
  2. Group 2 - Cuba
  3. Group 3 - Guatemala
  4. Group 4 - Ecuador
  5. Group 5 - Peru
  6. Group 6 - United States
  7. Group 7 - Venezuela

Other Information on the Web
Peru Election 2000 (http://csd.queensu.ca/peru2000/) offers comprehensive information on Peru's electoral process, candidates, political parties, law, and more, from the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University in Canada.

Peru: A Country Study (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/petoc.html) from the Library of Congress Area Handbook series provides information on the country's history, government, economic system, culture and more.

Elections Around The World (http://www.agora.stm.it/elections/) is a database with results from elections around the world and includes vital statistics for many nations.

International Foundation for Election Systems (http://www.ifes.org/) was established to support electoral and other democratic institutions in emerging, evolving, and experienced democracies. The site provides information on elections worldwide.

(Based on NY Times Daily Lesson Plan.)