A number of Africans arein the United States observing the elections. One of them is John Phiri ofZambia, the executive director of an international NGO, Global Justice Zambia.Phir, who is here courtesy of the United States State Department, has been toseveral states and is now in Cincinnati, Ohio. He told VOA English to Africareporter Douglas Mpuga that he is among many international observers here tosee how American democracy works.
?We are looking at electoral processes that aregoing on in the U.S. and also to get exposed to how the [political] campaignsare running, what issues are going on in these campaigns and make our ownobservations during this electoral process.?
Phiri said when he and other observers firstarrived in the U.S. they had their orientation in Washington, DC. ?Our firstpoint was Washington, DC, where we were exposed to a lot of information and metdifferent people. Later, we were able to go to battleground states. In my caseI went to Minnesota, which was then a battleground state, although it is nowleaning democratic.? A battleground state is one in which no candidate has aclear majority and could swing either way. Phiri is now in another battlegroundstate, Ohio.
He says he is surprised at how each state in thecountry has its own elections board and little role of the federal governmentin the organization of the elections. ?In my country, Zambia, we have anelectoral commission that overseas elections in the whole country. The[electoral] system here has kind of shocked me. It is really interesting. Thereis a major difference.?
He hailed the orderly conduct of the voters andnoted that many of them looked energetic and enthusiastic.
Phiri said while in the United States he hasnoted how eager people are to participate in the electoral process andpredicted that this may be a historic election.
Voting is underway and a high turnout isexpected.