Reactions to an election perceived to be stolen could be aggressive in some cities controlled by the opposition.
A victory by President Bush in this election, perceived as legitimate, will change that perception irrevocably and be seen a declaration of war by the American people themselves.
The decision to ban some 500 candidates deemed to have links (in the past) to Saddam Hussein's Baath party was almost certain to cause Sunni boycotts, and yet another election perceived as illegitimate.
The debate over motivation, he said "does not in any way, I think, detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately – that in fact what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign".
But that does not in any way, I think, detract from the basic point that everyone during the election perceived accurately — that in fact what the Russian hack had done was create more problems for the Clinton campaign than it had for the Trump campaign," Obama said.
As an example, most voters on the eve of the election perceived Donald Trump as more trustworthy than Hillary Clinton, despite nonpartisan fact-checkers such as Politifact showing that Trump lies much more often than Clinton.
If those elections are perceived to be free and fair, that will be another milestone in the reform process.
A few weeks after the election, a European intelligence official, having acknowledged that he had heard allegations of voter fraud, told me, "The question will be: How will the elections be perceived in Iraq?
A lower turnout at elections is perceived among states with low levels of interpersonal trust.
If the elections are perceived by the vast majority of Haitians as legitimate and fair, the first thing the leader has to do is try to consolidate whatever we have in terms of institutions.
