From Our Foreign Bureaus: Bar Codes in Ghana

Joe Mathews — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:53:00 -0400

BAR CODES: Ghana considers adding bar codes to its ballots to protect against errors and fraud.

TAIWAN REFERENDUM DIDN'T MEASURE UP: Foreign observers took a hard look at procedures in the Taiwanese referenda on joining the U.N., and didn't like what they saw.

NO VOTE ON OIL PIPELINE: The Bulgarian opposition has blocked an effort to let Bulgarians vote on whether to establish an oil pipeline. The pipeline has been passed by Parliament. The winner? Vladimir Putin. Russia can use the pipeline to send its oil from the Black Sea to the Aegean.

JOINING THE IRISH? Czech communists are proposing a national referendum of the Lisbon Treaty.

MONKS BARRED FROM BALLOT: Burmese monks won't be able to vote in their country's constitutional referendum, an election that clearly won't meet any common sense standard of fairness.