Elections coming up

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Liechtenstein, a country where conservative parties rack up 86.9% of the vote.  Wow!  Gotta love that!

I think Liechtenstein's Prince has a net worth greater than the GDP of the entire country. Oh, yeah, and he doesn't live there. What a joke of country.

it also has a population smaller than my city.

Coming up on April 22 (I think) is the presidential election in Togo. Since 1967 it was ruled by the dictator Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Africa's longest ruling ruler (even longer than Qadaffi!). But he had heart problems and died while being flown to France for treatment a few months ago (shows a lot when there was no hospitals in his country capapable of treating him.) The military then installed his son, Faure Gnassingbé as the new president even though the constitution said the Speaker of Parliment would become president. The UN and African Union called it a coup and and put pressure, so the Parliment went ahead and named him Speaker so he could take over. More pressure from the UN and African Union came, so he stepped down and was replaced by an interim president, but will run in the election. The opposition parties have decided to nominate a single candidate, a former leader of the independence movement, can't remember his name off hand now. But if he wins, Togo could very well make its move toward democracy, while a victory by Gnassingbé will probably mean more of the same rule that his father had for 38 years. Hopefully there will be plenty of UN and African Union observers to prevent fraud (especially considering his father once won reelection with 99.95% of the vote...)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'll have to root for UDUB

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

well there has to be a communist party of some sort. Is there any third world country without one?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I don't really think the polls matter in Iranian "elections". No doubt a reformist and moderate would win in a fair election, but we all know that's not happening.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Iran just needs to overthrow their government already. They overthrew the Shah pretty easily, I don't see why it'd be a problem

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That was also true with the Shah.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

except most of the people who wanted the Shah out were not Islamic fundamentalists. They mostly did support Khomeini, but simply because he was a leader of anti-Shah opposition, not because he was a fundamentalist. Khomeini and his hardliners didn't take complete control of the country until about a year later. You can't blame people for wanting their dictator out and it's stupid to blame Carter therefore, he and the rest had no way of knowing that someone way worse would take over.

Anyway, there's going to be a runoff. The candidates are Rafsanjani and Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad, the ultra-conservative hardliner mayor of Tehran. Rafsanjani is expected to win. A good thing since he is relatively moderate although not as reformist as the current president (who actually is relatively very progressive but has had his hands tied by the mullahs the whole time in office), so there probably won't be much progress under, but it's better than the hardliners obtaining more power.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Eh, one of these days the 1905 Iranian Constitutional Movement will come to fruition...I certainly think the Iranian people are ready for it.

It got to that point under Mossadegh, but then the US and Britain decided their oil companies' business was more important, and had to screw things up.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Well they did elect one and installed him a few days ago, and he's a former Communist who supported the Soviets crushing the Hungarian Revolution. Interesting.

Does the President of Italy have any real power? I heard he does have the power to decide things such as if there should be a recount and mediate Constitutional crises, but that's about it.