BOSTON (AP) – Sen. John Kerry, in some of his most pointed public comments yet about the presidential election, invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on Monday as he criticized President Bush and decried reports of voter disenfranchisement.

The Massachusetts Democrat, Bush’s challenger in November, spoke at Boston’s annual Martin Luther King Day Breakfast. He reiterated that he decided not to challenge the election results, but “thousands of people were suppressed in the effort to vote.”

“Voting machines were distributed in uneven ways. In Democratic districts, it took people four, five, eleven hours to vote, while Republicans (went) through in 10 minutes – same voting machines, same process, our America,” he said.

In his comments, Kerry also compared the democracy-building efforts in Iraq with voting in the U.S., saying that Americans had their names purged from voting lists and were kept from casting ballots.

Republican Gov. Mitt Romney cautioned that there are also GOP concerns about voter fraud on the Democratic side.

“I think it’s helpful if elected officials and leaders look at both sides of the issues, and that we take action to make sure that citizens qualified to vote do vote, and that people do not defraud the system,” Romney said after the breakfast at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Outside the hall, Kerry discussed his recent two-week trip to the Middle East and Europe.

“All of the Arab world is deeply disturbed by the absence of sufficient political diplomacy – the reconciliation necessary between Shia and Sunni,” he said of the war in Iraq and the Jan. 30 election there.

Kerry said the Bush administration has failed to properly train Iraqi forces to handle uprisings.

He said he found similar concerns in Europe.

“Throughout Europe, as I met with European leaders, it’s clear that they’re prepared to do more, but the (Bush) administration has not put the structure together for people to be able to do it,” he said.

Kerry declined to specify which leaders expressed a desire to help more with Iraq, or how. He met separately last week with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Both leaders have been critical of the U.S.-led invasion.

The keynote speaker at the breakfast, Harvard Law Professor Lani Guinier, noted that 13 percent of black men can’t vote today because of criminal records, and urged federal lawmakers to allow convicted felons to vote.

“Even after they have repaid their debt to society, they cannot vote,” she said. “If Dr. King were here, he’d say, they’re still voters.”‘

Romney said he opposed allowing felons to vote.

The governor sat at the head table beside his possible 2006 gubernatorial foe, Attorney General Thomas Reilly, a Democrat. Both men used their speeches to discuss K-12 education.

Romney reiterated his calls for reform, including more charter schools and merit pay for teachers. Reilly reiterated his support for Lynn’s school desegregation policy, which is being challenged in the courts.