I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.

You have the biggest impact on controlling, on affecting local lives as mayor. It's so much more important than being a state legislator.

At least I make decisions based on what I think is right, not who my friends might be.

I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.

I'm not going to rule out running for a second term. But, I think you have to be psychologically prepared to walk away from the job after four years. It's the only way that you cannot be influenced by those special interests.

Your first obligation, I suppose, is to your God. Your second is to your family. And your third is to your community. And you ought to try to fulfill all of those in your life.

I don't think that politics attracts the best and the brightest of America. It doesn't attract the most sincere people.

My belief is the majority of people in politics are just interested in pursuing this career in politics, and doing what's necessary to get themselves re-elected. And if that happens to coincide with the public good, great. But if it doesn't, the public good loses out.

These endless legal challenges that define elections in New York are a joke in this country, and they are the reason why it is so expensive, or one of the reasons, it's so expensive to run here and why so many people decide not to run.

The way we're going to win elections in this country is not to become Republican lite. The way we're going to win elections in this country is to stand up for what we believe in.

Until fighting ends and there are conditions, which allow the free expression of will by the people, there can be no elections and elections are not held in these circumstances anywhere in the world.

I'm not overly alarmist about it, but I do think there are some worrying signs, like the growing accumulation of wealth by a very small proportion of the population, plus elections in the US are much more dominated by money than anywhere else calling itself a democracy.

Saddam's ouster will not necessarily lead to the same result, since Iraq lacks democratic traditions. Democracy doesn't just consist of holding elections.

If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.

Especially in local elections, because hardly anybody pays attention to those - but it's really important who's mayor and who's on the city council, county commissioners, sheriffs, district attorney, and of course the school board.

Just two weeks ago, millions of Iraqis defied the threats of terrorists and went to the polls to determine their own future. I congratulate the Iraqi people for the courage they've shown in making these elections so successful.

It is difficult to understand these people who democratically take part in elections and a referendum, but are then incapable of democratically accepting the will of the people.

I want to step up our voter-registration activities. Not every branch does it, and not all the time. I want them to go back and get out the vote because I want us to have a big impact on the Congressional elections this year.

I ask you: turn a deaf ear to the special interests. Let politics stand down for a while. don't waste anytime thinking about future elections until we've done our jobs here.

Look, Congress has allocated more money to finance the upcoming Iraqi elections than it has for the American elections. There's something wrong with that.

I am planning to return and contest the October elections in Pakistan.

In the span of three years, the Iraqi people participated in three elections, drafted a constitution, and elected a new government. While more work remains, this is remarkable progress.

The United Nations has no business in our elections.

Elections are held to delude the populace into believing that they are participating in government.

I think the elections have gone well, although there is so much insecurity in Iraq. So far during the counting of ballots, there has not been a significant complaint. We have to wait to see what the outcome of the counting is.

Tony Blair - good thing there are not parliamentary elections in this country.

That U.N. Security Council resolution requires getting Syrian troops and intelligence officials out of Lebanon so that the Lebanese can have elections here this spring that are free and fair and free of outside influence.

Zhvania was the general secretary of the organisation which I founded, the Citizens' Union. It was the biggest organisation and came first in all elections, and Zhvania was the leader.

When it comes to federal elections law, Tom DeLay and his special-interest friends live by one set of rules, and everyone else lives by a very different set.

It is certainly not unrealistic to think we could have elections by mid-year 2004 and when a sovereign government is installed - my job here will be done.

I think the American people have been surprised by the enthusiasm with which the Iraqis have taken to elections and politics.

The winner of the elections which saw the participation of almsot 30 million people was the Iranian nation and the losers were those who tried to keep people away from the polls.

I learned more about elections on election night 2000 than I ever did during my 16 years of schooling.

We must correct the problems and inequities in the way we conduct and decide elections in the United States.

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections.

In New York, we had primary elections for mayor. To improve their chances, all five candidates changed their name to Rudy Giuliani.

The participation in European elections was always not very exciting. People are very interested in European issues, but they don't see the person who is representing Europe.

Some of the immediate causes of Jack Abramoff's troubles were some Indian elections that went bad for him.

We have seen voters denied their rights in recent elections as they have been incorrectly purged from lists, their absentee votes not counted, and voting machine integrity and security not assured.

They appear to have had a higher voter turnout in Iraq than we did in our recent federal elections, and we didn't have terrorists threatening to kill our families if we voted.

The U.S. views Morocco as an important friend, and we applaud your political and economic reforms that culminated with the recent parliamentary elections that were widely reported to have been conducted in a fair and open manner.

The candidates before you know that the IFP has set up a system of deployed IFP national and provincial leaders who are not only monitoring the performance of candidates during these elections but will also do so after these elections.

As we have always seen here in the U.S. the universal truth about elections is that people vote their pocketbook.

Voters want to know that elections will be conducted fairly and accurately.

South Australia was the first community to give the secret ballot for political elections.

Democracy in China is like Viagra; no such thing as free elections.

Taiwan is a budding democracy, and the people have participated in multi-party democratic elections since 1996.

Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

I think that it's a vital moment now for Russian democracy to convince people that it's only our actions, our joined actions and protests that could force Kremlin to reconsider its plans to abolish presidential elections.