Foreigners "amused" at U.S. election
Gore would be hands-down winner, says global poll
By Allen Wan, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 1:00 AM ET Nov 20, 2000
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (CBS.MW) - At least someone is finding the
whole U.S. election saga funny.
According to a Planet Project global poll conducted in 250 countries
around the world, 55 percent of the 6,000 foreign respondents found
amusement in the election drama that's being currently being played out in
Florida.
When asked about their reaction to the U.S.
election, they said the situation "makes me laugh."
Another third said they were just "very confused."
Foreigners were also perplexed with the finer
nuances of U.S. ballot-counting, with about half of
them saying that they could not understand why
"Americans can't count ballots accurately."
And if America's ego wasn't hurt enough, one in
three foreigners found the election to be "unfair and
undemocratic."
Harris Interactive analyzed the results for Planet
Project, a global Internet-based opinion poll on a
variety of topics affecting people's lives. The survey
was conducted from Nov. 15-18.
The poll also found that Democrat Al Gore would
emerge as a clear winner -- by a 3-1 margin -- if
people living outside the United States were
allowed to vote in the presidential election.
The vice president was found to be most popular in
Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Austria and Costa
Rica.
In fact, of the 32 countries with the highest number of responses, Gore got
a majority or a plurality everywhere except for Malaysia, where Bush
topped Gore by a 3-1 margin.
Humphrey Taylor of Harris Interactive said Gore's popularity overseas
was not surprising. "Almost always, most of the rest of the world is more
sympathetic to Democratic candidates and see Republicans as too
conservative." |
