The world is riveted on events in Ukraine, where fraud in the recent election has been alleged, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have engaged in peaceful protests. Meanwhile, another election is going forward: to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestine National Authority. Former Prime Minister and current PLO Chairman Mahmud Abbas emerged as the clear front-runner when a popular rival, Marwan Barghouti, withdrew from the race yesterday and threw his support to Abbas. Barghouti is currrently serving a prison term for mass murder, which caused logistical difficulties for his campaign.

The photo below shows a campaign rally for Chairman Abbas, which took place earlier today in Nablus:

I get the feeling that the Palestinians still don't quite have the hang of this democracy thing. The world pretty clearly has lower expectations of the forthcoming election among the Palestinians than of the just-completed election in Ukraine. It's interesting to consider why this is.

Posted by John at 09:47 AM  |    |  

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/mt/mt-diespammers.cgi/8795

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Speaking of Elections...:

» Daily Dish from The Cool Blue Blog
A Palestinian mass muderer drops out of the race for President of the Palestine National Authority. Being in jail was cutting down on his campaign effectiveness. He threw is support to Mahmud Abbas. Now this guy knows how to have [Read More]

Tracked on November 27, 2004 11:33 AM

» Lowered Expectations from UNCoRRELATED
PowerlineBlog raises some good questions -- and shows an interesting photo -- on the differences between the Ukranian and Palestinian elections. "I get the feeling that the Palestinians still don't quite have the hang of this democracy thing. The world... [Read More]

Tracked on November 27, 2004 12:23 PM

» Lowered Expectations from UNCoRRELATED
PowerlineBlog raises some good questions -- and shows an interesting photo -- on the differences between the Ukranian and Palestinian elections. "I get the feeling that the Palestinians still don't quite have the hang of this democracy thing. The world... [Read More]

Tracked on November 27, 2004 12:25 PM

» Things that make you go 'Huh?' from Darleen's Place
Peace protesters who aren'tOTTAWA -- A coalition of anti-war protesters, left-wing lawyers and anti-capitalists refused repeatedly yesterday to condemn those who might resort to violence during the "loud" demonstrations planned for the visit next week ... [Read More]

Tracked on November 27, 2004 06:58 PM

» Elections, PA Style? from Cross-Currents
The folks at PowerLine claim that the following image is from an election rally in the PA. I haven't seen this elsewhere, but the problem is that this is entirely too believable. As PowerLine's Hindrocket (John Hinderaker) puts it, "I get the feel... [Read More]

Tracked on November 27, 2004 08:20 PM