Yahoo! News - Talks on Forming Iraqi Government Collapse: "Many Iraqis blame politicians, for whom they say they risked their lives to cast ballots in the Jan. 30 election, for prolonging a political vacuum while violence spirals . . . The crisis plays into the hands of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose cabinet could now remain in a caretaker role until a general election due at the end of the year. "
Back on Jan 28, before the Iraq elections, I quoted Juan Cole as writing "There are, of course, lots of elections in the Arab world. Some are more rigged than others. But there are almost no elections where the sitting prime minister and his party would be allowed to be turned out unexpectedly by an unpredictable and uncontrolled electorate. If Iraqi interim Prime Minister Allawi's list does poorly and his political star falls as a result of a popular vote, something democratic will have happened in Iraq, for all the serious problems with the elections."
Well, it looks like "something democratic" has not actually happened yet in Iraq.
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