Former US President Barack Obama has sharply criticized whathe described as Republican attempts at voter suppression, saying that people inpower were "attacking our voting rights with surgical precision" andcalled for wide reform, the media reported on Friday.
In a eulogy delivered at civil rights icon John Lewis'sfuneral on Thursday in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Obama launched astinging attack on incumbent President Donald Trump's administration and somepolice departments as per reports.
"Today we witness with our own eyes, police officerskneeling on the necks of black Americans," he said.
"We can witness our federal government sending agentsto use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators."
He said people in the government were "doing theirdarnedest to discourage people from voting" by closing polling stationsand imposing "restrictive ID laws" on minorities and students.
Obama also proposed a series of reforms to voting in the US,including making sure Americans are automatically registered to vote; givingthe vote to former prison inmates who had "earned their secondchance"; creating new polling stations and expand early voting; and makingelection day a national holiday so workers who can't get time off can vote.
Paying tribute to Lewis, Obama said he had become the firstAfrican-American President because of the Congressman's fight for civil rightsfor blacks.
Obama was quoted saying -Lewis, also a Democrat, did"everything he could to preserve this democracy and as long as we havebreath in our bodies, we have to continue his cause".
The service was also attended by former Presidents BillClinton and George W. Bush and House speaker Nancy Pelosi.