Looking back, an election measuring support for the conservative agenda was too much to hope for.
The spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said the new election measures, which set strict limits on political participation, undercut American efforts to improve ties with Myanmar, formerly Burma.
At a time when Republican governors and legislatures around the country, citing accusations of voter fraud, were passing election measures that Democrats contend will suppress minority turnout, Mr. Malloy was advocating ways to make voting easier, including Web-based voter registration, Election Day registration and larger penalties on efforts to intimidate or impede voters.
Forgoing it altogether will cost the Treasury £750m, but may be an astute pre-election measure aimed at shoring up Labour's middle England vote.
Although the presidential panel approved the elections measure, it also recommended that Parliament vote separately on an article of the bill dealing with political representation for Christians and other minorities.
The re-election measure would apply to future presidents and Cartes, a soft-drink and tobacco mogul elected to a five-year term in 2013.
Demonstrators are demanding general elections, measures to alleviate a brutal economic crisis, freedom for hundreds of jailed opposition activists, and independence for the opposition-controlled National Assembly legislature.
He cited a reduction of $670 million for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and said the proposed bill provided no money for an election overhaul measure passed last year.
However, Labour fears that it will mean if it wins a narrow majority at the next election the measure will be used to defeat its legislative agenda.
It allows over 5 million eligible voters to cast a ballot for their leader in a 2017 election, a measure Hong Kong's pro-Beijing government argues offers the universal suffrage promised by the city's mini-constitution.
Many of the e-mails show that Republicans were trying to gauge what percentage of the voters in the new districts voted for Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, to measure how strongly Republican they are.
