By the way, if you want to see what a REALLY dysfunctional election looks like check out Pakistan.
The leading candidate has already been assassinated. Her party's supporters has been the target of numerous attacks - the latest coming in the last week or so.
There are widespread concerns that Musharaf will rig the vote. It is interesting that the Islamic Fundamentalists who are blamed for murdering Bhutto and attacking her supporters before and since, have not targetted Musharaf's supporters. I can think of a few reasons:
First, his supporters are far fewer in number. Second, they are largely in uniform and heavily armed. Third, a continued Musharaf dictatorship is preferable to the Islamic Fundamentalists than a democratically elected Bhutto regime (her son).
Monday, February 18, 2008
Pakistan Votes Today
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 4:42 AM
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2 comments:
Forgive my sarcasm today, but that is my general mood, especially after reading about Texas.
The Pakistani elections sounds perfectly organized to me, RBR.
In Russia, the Putin has created not only his replacement, but a little=known opposition candidate to make it all look legit.
Hey, in 2000, Missouri voters elected a dead man to sit in the senate. Then the dead man's wife took his place and his opponent was made attorney general.
See, we do it here, too! It's all politics as its finist.
I think Russia has to be seen with a bit of historical perspective. Putin is the first leader in a long time who is not busy erecting statues of himself. He doesn't seem to "get" democracy, but is anyone surprised by that, given his background and the country's history? All in all, Russia is better off today than it was 20 years ago. The specter of a communist return or rightist putsch is gone. Putin's authoritarian ways aside, he is voluntarily stepping down from the highest post in accordance with the constitution. Beats Hugo Chavez. And for all the talk, he has allowed NATO to expand, pacified Chechnya, and not tried to project Russian military power anywhere.
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