Current Analysis

Cracks in Egypt's Electoral Engineering

November 8 marks the beginning of the third and final round of elections to the lower house of parliament in Egypt, the largest Arab country and the second-largest recipient of US foreign aid. With 282 of the 444 races now complete, results so far have included a strikingly poor showing

Vickie Langohr • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Iran's Reform Dilemma

Saturday's summons of the Ayatollah Ali Khameneii's brother Hadi Khameneii to the Special Court for the Clergy punctuated Iran's tumultuous summer in dramatic fashion. The younger Khameneii, publisher of the moderate daily Hayat-e No, appeared before the tribunal September 11 to face vague charges

Ali Mudara • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Rafsanjani's Gambit

On February 18, Iranians will go to the ballot box for another crucial event, this time to elect the sixth Parliament (majlis) of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The elections have raised considerable excitement in Iran because President Muhammad Khatami's forces may gain control of the Majlis, which

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani • 7 min read

MER Article

Do-e Khordad and the Specter of Democracy

A shadow haunts Iran, the shadow of democracy and popular sovereignty. Twenty years ago the Islamic Revolution established a polity based on two contradictory elements: a republic of equal and sovereign citizens, and a hierarchical theocracy of pastoral power descending from an unelected religious l

Kaveh Ehsani • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Assessing Israel's New Government

When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak presents his coalition government to the Knesset he will receive a vote of confidence from 75 of its 120 members. Seven parties, some with incompatible positions on key issues, support the new government. In addition to Barak's One Israel list (Labor Party plus

Joel Beinin • 6 min read

MER Article

Turkey's Elections and the Kurds

It is now a dozen years since the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, launched a protracted guerrilla war against the Turkish state. Today Turkey’s Kurdish crisis seems to be deadlocked. Both of the warring parties seem to have reached their limit in terms of their

Hamit Bozarslan • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Interpreting Israel's 1999 Election Campaign

The current election campaign in Israel is often portrayed as a struggle over the future of peace with the Palestinians. But according to Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, "this great debate is over."[1] Most Israelis believe a Palestinia

Joel Beinin • 6 min read

MER Article

The Malaise of Turkish Democracy

In his first televised interview in late 1996, just months after taking office, an avuncular-looking Necmettin Erbakan seemed unsurprised at a question about his taste in clothing. “Mr. Prime Minister, we hear that you favor ties by the Italian designer Versace,” said commentator Mehmet Ali Birand.

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş • 11 min read

MER Article

Perspectives on Elections from the Arab World

Some of the material in this issue of Middle East Report was generated at the October 2-3, 1998 conference on “Multi-Party Elections in the Arab World: Controlled Contestation and Opposition Strategies,” which as organized by MERIP board members Marsha Pripstein Posusney and Jillian Schwedler. The c

Kamal Khaled, Hani Hourani, Mohamed Karam, Gamal Abdel Aziz, Issam Naaman, Mudar Kassis, Sion Assidon • 6 min read

MER Article

A Paradox of Democracy?

On April 27, 1997, Muhammad Zabara stood outside a polling station in the old city of Sanaa. In a neatly pressed suit and tie, his short hair and mustache freshly trimmed, he greeted voters who had turned out for Yemen’s second post-unification parliamentary elections. A team of Western election mon

Jillian Schwedler • 12 min read

MER Article

Algeria's Contested Elections

Western evaluations of the 1997 legislative elections in Algeria were broadly positive, or at least acquiescent. One European diplomat remarked laconically the day after the poll that the results “don’t cross my pain threshold”; another gave the elections a rating of “six out of ten” as far as their

Hugh Roberts • 11 min read

MER Article

Winner Takes All

Eight Ways to Make Elections Risk-Free 1. When drawing the lines of the constituencies, remember to integrate as many opposition supporters as possible into your own constituencies and to transfer as many of your own supporters as necessary into the opposition’s strongholds in order to maintain the

Iris Glosemeyer • 1 min read