Will Elections Cure The Disease? - 9

Photo Op

The question asked in this series brings back memories of feelings that surface during troubled times just prior to a "critical" election.

I suppose it is akin to the question "will the operation work?" in the country featured in the following quote:

"On the federal level, [country] elects a president as head of state and a parliament, one of the two chambers of the [government]. The president is elected for, at most, at least in theory, two consecutive six-year terms by the people ... The [government] has two chambers. [One chamber] has 450 members, elected for five-year terms ... The [other chamber] not directly elected; each of the 89 federal subjects of [country] sends 2 delegates to the [other chamber], for a total of 208 (178 (delegates from regions) + 30 ... members."

(Wikipedia).  Would the answer to this question (Will Elections Cure The Disease?) be the same if asked in Minneapolis compared to asking it in Derbent (world's oldest city?).

The country featured in the question above is Russia, where elections are conducted.

And some of the elections there are trumped up like they are here:

"On October 26, a group of demonstrators rallied in Moscow to protest against the results of the mayoral election in the southern Dagestani city of Derbent on October 11. Over 300 people were reported to have taken part in the protest. Derbent’s acting mayor, Felix Kaziahmedov, claimed victory in the election, while his main opponent, Imam Yaraliev, declared the election fraudulent. Now the opposition is trying to overturn the results of the election, citing the fact that over one-third of the city’s polling stations failed to open for voting. Yaraliev, formerly Dagestan’s prosecutor-general and currently the head of a Dagestani district, stated that Dagestan’s President Mukhu Aliev, had opposed him and helped the city’s acting mayor. Felix Kaziahmedov, for his part, accused Yaraliev of bribing the voters and of issuing threats. Yaraliev and his supporters mutedly threatened the government authorities, saying that it was hard for them to stay within the realm of legality given that the authorities did not comply even with court decisions (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, October 26).

The authoritative Dagestani newspaper Novoe Delo provided astonishing figures on the resources that were spent in the electoral campaign in Derbent, which has a population of a little more than 100,000. According to the weekly, the campaign cost the two principal candidates, Yaraliev and Kaziahmedov, over $30 million. The publication claimed that $1 million dollars was spent by one of the candidates’ teams to assure that a third candidate withdrew from the race. It also claimed that local elections previously cost $100,000 to $200,000 and that even the elections for a deputy to the Russian State’s Duma cost around $2 million (Novoe Delo, October 16).

The importance of the Derbent election for Dagestani President Mukhu Aliev, who allegedly threw his weight behind one of the candidates in the race, may be due to the fact that Aliev’s presidential term ends in early 2010. Aliev, who is 69 years old, is thought to have strong ambitions to stay in power after his first term expires, and thus, he is trying to demonstrate to Moscow that he can provide the desired outcomes in local elections while solidifying his grip on power. Despite his evident success, some observers in Dagestan regard his victory in Derbent as a feat that will weaken him over time because of his overuse of resources."

Despite the questionable techniques used during the October 11 elections in Dagestan, they also demonstrated how Dagestan stands out in the region for its political pluralism. Not only was the public served diverse opinions on the elections in the print media, but opposing views even made it to the republic’s TV screens, something not normally observed elsewhere in the North Caucasus or even Russian regions outside the North Caucasus (Dagestanskaya Pravda, October 22).

(Jamestown org). One wonders why we seem to think that "United" States elections are the cure?

The previous post in this series is here.