LAGOS, Dec 15 (AFP) - The way US President-elect George W. Bush won his election has tarnished US standing in the world and his victory is a worry for Africa, Nigerian newspapers said Friday. In an editorial headlined "Tainted American presidency", the newspaper The Comet noted the sharp racial divide in the US polls where 90 percent of black voters voted for Bush's opponent, Vice President Al Gore. "It is obvious to people in this part of the world that something was wrong with the conduct of the election in Florida where Jeb Bush, the president-elect's brother, is the governor," The Comet said. Bush is widely believed to have even less interest in Africa than most previous US presidents. The incumbent president, Bill Clinton, has however visited the continent twice, including a stop in Nigeria in August. "We are worried that Mr. Bush may consign Africa into irrelevance and absolute marginalisation ... We only hope he will be weaned from his apparent isolationism," the Comet said. The paper said Bush's Republican Party was itself "racist" and would have to change to win elections in future. "The Republican Party must change and cast away its racist and bigoted tradition of favouring only the whites and the super-rich," the newspaper said. The election itself was severely flawed, the paper said. "America no longer occupies the moral high ground in the democratic world... The man with fewer votes will become president in the most powerful democratic country in the world. The partisanship of the United States' Supreme Court was just too obvious," it said. "Would it not have been better if the votes were counted so as to give legitimacy and authenticity to whoever won?" However, the paper still praised the peaceful way the dispute had ended, praising Gore's "patriotism" and "sagacity" and saying "there is a lesson in this for Africa where democratic struggle usually turns into armed struggle." The newspaper The Guardian said the election had shown the world different sides of the United States. "The election and its resolution has thrown up the best and the worst of American democracy. The role played out by the Supreme Court has turned out to be the deciding factor," the newspaper said. "Americans may respect the judgement of their courts but not many are convinced that Mr. Bush has won fairly and convincingly," it added. Bush "must work hard to heal the wounds that the election created," the paper went on. Nigeria itself returned to civilian rule in May last year after elections widely viewed as severely flawed. The Clinton administration last year named Nigeria as one of its four priority countries making the transition to democracy. pcj/kc _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------