In a region that is crying out for political change, two key countries are beginning 2005 with elections. Palestinians elected a new president on January 9, while Iraqis are due to elect a National Assembly on January 30 (after Crescent goes to press).
The election campaign season began officially in Iraq last month. Like much else in the political life of modern Iraq, these elections, scheduled for January 30, have led to fierce competition. Nowhere can the intensity of electoral clamoring better be seen than in the number of electoral tickets competing for seats in the 275-member National Assembly.
So now it’s official: George W. Bush and his policies are supported by the majority of those Americans who choose to engage in US politics...
On September 14, the establishment of a “Government of the Republic of East Turkestan in Exile” was declared in Washington DC by the East Turkestan National Freedom Centre (ETNFC), an Uigurexile group based in Washington...
If getting agreement on Afghanistan’s new constitution at the Loya Jirga was a tortuous process, what lies ahead may well be worse. Implementing its articles, especially those on disarmament and demobilisation of the armed militias (whose survival depends not on what is written on a piece of paper but on guns), will be the most difficult task...
The re-emergence of the Congress party after the recent elections has created confusion and insecurity for Muslims. The media and some Muslim leaders are celebrating the downfall of the BJP and the ‘resurgence’ of secularism...
Until his defeat in Spain’s elections in March, José María Aznar was a key member of the US-led ‘Coalition of the Willing’. His defeat, coming after the Madrid bombing, caused fury in Washington. FRANCISCO J. ROMERO SALVADÓ discusses its causes and repercussions...
José María Aznar, the right wing prime minister of Spain who was the only European leader to join George Bush and Tony Blair in their invasion of Iraq, paid the price for his defiance of Spanish public opinion on March 14, when the Spanish electorate voted him out of office...
The results of the general elections held on March 21 in Malaysia were as expected (see Crescent, March 2004): a return to the pre-Anwar-Ibrahim saga situation...
All the West’s well-established theories about the political evolution of the Islamic state of Iran were thrown into disarray on February 20, when Iran’s parliamentary elections passed off peacefully...
A hundred days is generally accepted to be a reasonable time after which to gauge the progress or performance of a new government or political leader...
Like occupied Kashmir, Chechnya and now Iraq, the northern Sumatran province of Aceh too is going through the ‘democratic’ process...
As this issue of Crescent International goes to press, general Pervez Musharraf remains president of Pakistan, despite two attempts on his life within a few days...
Azeri authorities launched a major crackdown on political opponents and critical journalists last month, after observers and opposition parties denounced major irregularities in the presidential elections of October 15.
Only days after the parliamentary elections in Yemen on April 27, the US agency for international aid (USAID) announced the return of its mission to the country after seven years, saying that its activities would be restricted to the areas of public health, primary education and the provision of security, and the sources of income and food in certain rural areas.
Morocco’s “moderate” Islamic Justice and Development Party (JDP) was the major gainer in the country’s elections last month, when results were finally announced on October 1, four days after the polling on September 27.
In yet another attempt to legitimize its rule, India is again trying to impose a ‘democratic’ poll on Kashmir. The first phase took place on 16 September and the second on 24 September; the polls end later this month. With coercion by security forces, election boycotts in general...
Macedonia, which a year ago was on the verge of civil war, has held elections. They were marred only by sporadic incidents of violence traceable to criminal elements and Slav extremist groups. As in Kosova, the Muslim Albanians are blamed for the unrest.
Both Malaysia’s ruling coalition, led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and the opposition Islamic Party (PAS) got shocks in by-elections in two constituencies left vacant by the death of Fadzil Noor...
A referendum in Tunisia, held on May 26 to approve amendments to the constitution proposed by president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, secured 99.52 percent of the votes cast. This result makes it possible for Ben Ali to stay in office until 2014, and gives him immunity from prosecution for life.
