Democracy Spreads?
No doubt in response to stern warnings from the Bush administration, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has held its first election. Yes, democracy is spreading in the Islamic world. . .sort of. . .if you look at it in the right light, standing on one foot, and squint.
Only one in twelve Saudi citizens was eligible to register for the election, none of them women, and not many bothered. They are voting in local elections for councils, but only for one less than half of the council seats, the majority being appointed by the King.
From reports it would appear that the hard-line religious candidates have won all the seats. Both CBS and the BBC have reports on the elections which seem to track with the Iraqi elections indicating that when allowed to vote, Muslims vote for Islamic republics.
The freedom thing doesn’t seem to be working out for Bush any better than WMDs. It’s beginning to look like Bush couldn’t give away ice water in Death Valley during the Summer.
