09 January 2005

Ballots for Mohammad

It looks as if the "Palestinian" elections are a complete success... At being a big catastrophe.

This segment is particularly telling.

Voting was said to be brisk in Gaza and the West Bank, but there were problems at a big Israeli-run polling station in East Jerusalem.

Your say: Palestinian poll

Voters complained that Israeli officials were not allowing them to vote even though the Palestinian central election commission had properly registered them.

One election monitor said he thought up to 500 voters had been turned away.

Under special voting arrangements for East Jerusalem - which Israel has annexed and sees as its exclusive domain, while international law decrees it to be occupied territory - Palestinians are allowed to vote in Israeli post offices.

When all else fails, blame the Jews.

And the money shot?

Only minor problems were reported elsewhere, although in a polling station in Ramallah in the West Bank, five Palestinian gunmen fired into the air in frustration that some names had been left off lists.

They were persuaded to leave the station.

That's precisely what I think of when I think of voting and democracy: firing my weapon in the air in frustration.

Compare this, of course, to the U.S.-sponsored elections in Afghanistan, that went off without a hitch. Telling, isn't it?

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