For years Mexicans had a favourite joke about their one-party system: "The Americans say they have such great presidential elections because they know the winner the same night as the vote. But the Mexican system is more efficient. We know the winner weeks before the election."
But suddenly, the joke is not on Mexico. Mexicans have watched dumbfounded over the last few days as the US election became snarled in uncertainty and charges of unfairness. Moreover, all this took place just months after Mexico held its most democratic presidential race ever - complete with a prompt announcement on election night that the opposition had won for the first time in 71 years.
A Mexico City daily, Cronica, in a front-page commentary, said that in "the countries the Americans call banana republics they may count the votes by hand, but at least there's a result. What happened?" And, like Mexicans, citizens around the world are reacting with astonishment and not a little mockery as they realise that the giant of democracy has its own clay feet.
Some of the loudest howling has come from countries accustomed to receiving American lectures on democracy.
Russia's Central Election Commission chairman, Mr Alexander Veshnyakov, who observed the US vote, told Russian reporters on his return on Saturday: "We have a lot to learn from Americans, but Americans should not think too much of themselves either, and should learn something from us too."
In the Czech Republic, which emerged in 1989 from decades of Communist rule, a columnist Jaroslav Veis wrote on Saturday in the daily Svobodne Slovo: "And how come the majority of Americans voted for Gore, but a majority of electors go to Bush? Try to explain to the kids at home [that] this is a just result of democratic elections! They will think you are pulling their leg."
Still, many people recognised that their own countries were not paragons of electoral virtue either. In Russia, where Mr Vladimir Putin recently won the presidency amid allegations of fraud, this joke has made the rounds: "In connection with the uncertain outcome of its presidential elections, America has asked Russia for technical assistance. Election Commission Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov has departed for the United States and new results are already in: Vladimir Putin is in the lead."