The government has presented the elections as the solution to Syria's conflict: If the people choose Assad in the election, the fight should end; if Assad loses, then he will leave.
Nobody is pretending that the elections are the solution to Egypt's future.
"I don't believe that elections are the solution," said Carlos Ruckauf, the influential governor of the province of Buenos Aires.
"He told me that quick elections were the solution, and that we can be part of that".
We cannot possibly believe that an election is the solution to Iraq's problems, regardless of how fair and how inclusive, when people are getting killed every day as they go about their regular lives.
Another coup or fresh elections, the two solutions most widely touted, may only postpone the next clashes.
But factoring in any practical barriers to his election, the obvious solution is a reality TV show modelled on Trading Places, the film in which Dan Akroyd's odiously smug and callous commodities broker swaps lives with Eddy Murphy's druggy beggar, as first seen in a wheelchair feigning a deficiency in the leg division to the tune of two.
We are disappointed in such comments, which focus on the election as something important for our country, as something worth waiting and watching for, although this election is not the solution for Burma.
"There is a crisis, and I hope the solution is elections," he said.
He maintains that this year's low ratings are a natural by-product of the election cycle, which means that the solution is a little bit of tinkering and a lot of waiting.
