Still waiting for real democracy (original) (raw)
A general election merely gives clues as to whom the people prefer
PARTIES competing in Algeria's general election on May 10th faced a weary cynicism among voters. So far the Arab spring has passed the country by. Still recovering from the grim legacy of a civil war of the 1990s, in which at least 100,000 Algerians are thought to have died, few people seem tempted to take the revolutionary road. But nor do many see much of a way forward using the ballot box, at least not in the form being presented by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Still waiting for real democracy”
From the May 12th 2012 edition
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