Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Following the elections in Nigeria and Venezuela, the losing Opposition condemned the election and claimed the votes were rigged. The same thing happened in Kenya and as sure as night follows day, we will soon have it in Pakistan and Zimbabwe. In 1989, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution on enhancing the effectiveness of the principle of periodic and genuine elections. The resolution received almost unanimous support and since then there have been many resolutions modifying it and supporting it. I ask the Government to take the lead on this issue.

There were no UN observers in Kenya — the observers were from the EU. However, it strikes me that they carry no weight and that they have no authority. Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs use the influence of the Government at the next General Assembly of the UN to try to tighten this proposal? We could then get agreement from the countries to be supervised that there would be some mechanism in place to sign off and state that the elections were conducted properly. At the moment, elections in many of these regions are a farce.

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