The next year, Mr. Sadr, who had long hedged his support for elections, called on his supporters to fully participate in the vote last March.
It gives us a base of support for elections and things like that".
United Nations officials are seeking Belgrade's support for elections in Kosovo, which are planned for November.
Traditionally, the organization's strengths have been local religious training and charity work, which have made it effective at mobilizing grassroots support for elections.
In Pakistan, while continuing to express support for elections, she has scrambled for ways to keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a military dictator who took power in a 1999 coup, in office.
In Mubarak's view US pressure for reform in the Shah's Iran pre-1979, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and US support for elections in Gaza that brought Hamas to power in 2006 were all policies that backfired calamitously.
In the middle of that decade, a young Egyptian Islamist named Aboul-Ela Maadi broke from the Brotherhood and formed the Center Party, declaring its support for elections and the alternation of power and, as important, dissent and coalitions with non-Islamic parties.
Moscow also promised to allow international monitors in Ukraine and express support for elections slated for next month. .
