MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN observers request for US presidential election.

Several United States Congressmen have requested United Nations observers to supervise the coming November 2 US presidential elections, confirmed the UN spokesperson.

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, nine Congressmen including four blacks and a Latino requested the UN "to ensure free and fair elections in the US".

The UN Spokesperson office confirmed the petition but said this type of documents is not made public. However Eddie Bernice Johnson from Texas in an official release explains the purpose of the request.

"As legislators we must ensure the American people that our nation does not endure another nightmare as the 2000 presidential elections", reads the letter adding that the request is for UN observers both in the voting places all over the country and when the recount of votes next November 2.

"This is the first step so history does not repeat itself", said the Congresswoman who attached a report published in June 2001 by the US Civil Rights Commission indicating that the "electoral process in Florida denied the right to vote to Negroes and to poor counties".

The report of the bipartisan commission concludes that the deprival of voting rights to these citizens, in their majority Democrats, influenced the result of the last US presidential election when Republican George W. Bush was elected.

The petition also points out that in spite of promises to reform the voting system, "nothing has been done yet to impede this happening again in 2004".

Florida State was vital in defeating Democrat candidate Al Gore in the controversial 2000 presidential election.

Candidate Bush finally reached the White House after the Supreme Court rejected a petition for the manual recount of the controversial and confused Florida election results.