Voters who supported the regime were to vote yes; those who didn't were to vote no.
There is nothing more absurd than the idea that removing the Taliban in Afghanistan, or Saddam and his sons in Iraq, and replacing their regimes with the chance to vote, supervised by the UN, is somehow an assault on Muslims.
Corruption, which many regard as an intrinsic part of the regime, will drive many Algerians to vote for the Green Alliance Algeria party, formed last year as a coalition of three former Islamist parties – the Movement of Society for Peace, the Islamic Renaissance Movement and the Movement for National Reform.
An employee caught Montañes on tape conducting a town-hall meeting in which he menacingly ordered all his personnel to vote for regime candidates and bring in a picture of their ballot the day after the election to prove that they voted "correctly".
Ironically, Trounstine goes on to show, the resulting loss of democratic responsiveness eventually mobilizes residents to vote monopolistic regimes out of office.
The controversial arming of the youth wing – denied by the government – was thus a kind of insurance policy and a reminder that it could be dangerous to vote against the regime.
"During the elections, they send buses to Saudi Arabia, bring them to Bahrain to vote for the regime's candidates, then send them back," Jawad told me.
Hundreds of thousands of its citizens are so desperate for change that they are prepared not only to vote for a new regime as a majority did on September 24th but to protest, strike and risk their skulls.But as Lenin's cold-blooded logic told him, popular discontent, even when combined with awesome bravery, is not enough by itself.
Iran's Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed (Sazeman-e Basij-e Mostazafan), commonly known as the Basij, is a paramilitary organization used by the regime to suppress dissidents, vote as a bloc, and indoctrinate Iranian citizens.
Any attempt by the regime to manipulate the vote or the counting is likely to be detected — and must be quickly and resolutely opposed by the United States and other Western governments.
