Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 November 1990 — Page 2

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3« I9>0

Politics can be a ‘chilling’ experience

Elizabeth Diggs, 69, has been active in Democratic politics for the last 20 years. She has worked for little return and has taken pride in being a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. But lately, it seems, there’s an effort to freeze her out of politics -r literally freeze her out. After a statewide change in precinct boundary lines, Mrs. Diggs was moved from a precinct where she has been committeewoman, warmly greeted and active for years, to a new, chilly precinct that uses a fire station as its polling {dace — where voters go to vote. ‘The fire station is so cold,” Mrs. Diggs says. She can’t continue to woik there unless something is done and is afraid that working in the draft caused by the station doors opening and closing will cause her to become ill. She’s also hot about having to move to a new area. ‘That’s wrong to change me after 20 years and put me in that fire station. I don’t like it there. It’s cold. I don’t like the surroundings. The firemen are going and coming. It’s just no place for a woman to be. It's just no {dace for an election,’’ says Mrs. Diggs. After complaining to all who would listen, Mrs. Diggs was told

BETWEEN the ■ 1 i n e s

By EUNICE TROTTER Editor-in-Chief

that the problem was caused by Republicans and could only be rectified by Republicans. Actually, the problem was caused by a federal mandate requiring that precinct lines be based on census block boundaries. Then the 1989 Indiana General Assembly unanimously approved a bill that would restrict the number of voters in a precinct to 800. The shuffle began. The Sixth Ward, where Mrs. Diggs has worked and lives, was hithardbythechanges. Afterbeing over the 8th Precinct for years.

Mrs. Diggs found hendf placed in charge of foe newly created Ufo Precinct Before the primary election earlier this year, she was notified that she would be moved from Riverside Community Center, where the SthPrecinct polling place was located, to the fire station on Edgemont. "At Riverside, we were just comfortable and everybody knew 1 knew what I was doing. And 1 knew the people. They were nice to me, I treated them with respect and they treated me with respect,” says Mrs. Diggs. Even more importantly, Mrs. Diggs believes Democrats are losing voters because when voters go to the old polling place at Riverside and are told the location has changed for them to the fire station, they just leave and go home. Marion County Clerk Fay Mowery, who is a member of the Marion County Election Board which helps determine where polling places will be located, said she has not received a request to move the 11th Precinct polling {dace. The deadline for such requests was two weeks ago, according to Mowery. Mowery said she will immediately improve foe heating situation, and, if a letter is sent to her atten-

tion requesting that the 11th Precinct polling site be dunged to Riverside, die will present the request tt the next gathering trf foe Marion County Election Board, scheduled for the third Tuesday of December. Sixth Ward Chairwoman Sue Shively said die has tried to move the Ufo Precinct polling place to Riverside, but discovered that the only available space would be down a set of stairs, which would violate the law that requires access for the handicapped. “There really isn't too much close,” said Mrs. Shively, who noted that a bigger issue is poUing places, in general. Emphasizing the lack of polling sites, Mrs. Shively said, "Lastyear, we went round and round with Fay (Mowery) and the whole ball of wax trying to get precincts straightened out. If you don’t have any alternatives, it really presents a problem.” Thopesomethingisdone,”said Mrs. Diggs, "because I’m almost losing interest in it When I started voting my mother and father were Republicans, but I was a Democrat. I’ve come a long way in politics. and I love politics, but I can't sit around no place and be cold.”

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Japan rejects Mandela request for aid TOKYO (AP) — Nelson Mandela said he In his 50-minute meeting with Kaifu, Man- minister, Seiroku Kajiyama. was disappointed at Prime Minister Toshiki dela said the ANC wanted the money to help Mandela said, “This is a matter which I Kaifo’s rejection Oct. 29 of a request for $25 20,000 political prisoners due to be released would like to leave in the hands of foe leaders million in aid to the African National Con- soon by the South African government, the of this country.'' g rcss news reports said. Kajiyama provoked protests in Japan and in Kaifu told the ANC deputy president that Mandela said other countries have pledged the United States when he compared prostiJapan cannot grant the aid because it does not money to the ANC and he hoped Japan would tutes in Tokyo to blacks in America who ruin give assistance to political parties. make an exception in its funding rules, the the atmosphere” ofneighborhoods they move Instead, he offered money to South African Kyodo News Service reported. The report into, groups working to improve living conditions quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry offi- He later apologized and was reprimanded in South Africa, news reports said. In addition, cial. by Kaifu but was allowed to keep his job blacks would be eligible to come to Japan for Kaifu told Mandela that Japan has given despite calls for his resignation, occupational training under U.N. auspices. $1.4 million worth of assistance this year to Japan has banned direct private investment Mandela, who was freed in February after black South Africans, Kyodo reported. in South Africa since the 1960s and does not more than 27 years in prison, made a rare Mandela was asked in a television interview have an ambassador in Pretoria, although it speech by a non-head of state in Parliament to comment on the controversy over a slur maintains diplomatic relations with South Oct. 30. He arrived Oct. 27 for a six-day visit, against blacks last month by Japan's justice Africa. Human rights team says election was rigged

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A French human rights group said recently that vote rigging defeated Benazir Bhuno’s populist party in last week’s elections. The International Federation of Human Rights is the first group of poll watchers to echo Bhutto’s charges of fraud in voting for national and provincial legislatures. The Islamic Democratic Alliance, which will form Pakistan’s next government, called the group’s assessment ridiculous. “They must have had super vision like the comic book character Superman to be able to see massive fraud which dozens of other observers could not see,” said an alliance spokesman who insisted on anonymity. Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party was handed a stunning defeat in national parliamentary elections. In provincial legislative polling three days later, her party won support only in her home province of Sindh. In a statement issued by the French Embassy in Islamabad, the four-member human rights team said there was a discrepancy between foe widespread impression of sparse voter turnout and foe official report. Almost without exception, witnesses reported sparse voter turnout, but officials said 45.6 percent of the electorate cast ballots, nearly 3 percent more than in November 1988. The Paris-based human rights organization, which has members in 54 countries, charged that Bhutto’s opponents altered foe

election results, suggesting the intervention could have occurred between the polling stations and foe election return offices. Bhutto said vote rigging was widespread in 100 of Pakistan’s 217 constituencies. She claimed between 2 million and 4 million pre-preparcd ballots were stuffed into boxes cn route from polling stations to election return offices. Chief Election Commission Justice Naccmuddin dismissed the charges, saying: ”1 have not received a single complaint.” But the French report claimed several polling agents were not given certified results following the vote count at the polling station. Instead they have only slips of papers to prove their count. “Something very important — I no official paper with the results was given to polling agents when the voting was over,” the group’s statement said. The human rights group’s report was at odds with that of foe Washington-based National Democratic Institute, which said polling was ‘ 'generally open, orderly and well-administered.’’The institute sent 40 observers to Pakistan. A 15-mcmber team from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also concluded the voting was fair, as did a force-member Canadian team. Bhutto, 37, was sacked as prime minister Aug. 6 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who charged her party indulged in corruption, nepotism and confrontational politiesduring hcr20months in power.

Politicians hosted at Planner House Secretary of State Joseph Hogsett; Judge Robert D. Rucker Jr., recently appointed appeals court judge; state Sen. Julia Carson; and Robert J. Taylor, a newly-appointed trustee of Purdue University, were among the politicians who were the guests of honor at a reception held at Planner House last week. (Recorder Photo by George Van Sickles)

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