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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/world/middleeast/07democracy.html
In the Middle East: Ballot Boxes? Yes. Actual Democracy? Tough Question.
[New York Times] Michael Slackman - This is election season in the Middle East. Syria just held presidential and parliamentary elections. Algeria held parliamentary elections. Egyptians will be asked to vote next week on a new upper house of Parliament. There will soon be elections in Jordan, Morocco and Oman, followed by elections in Qatar. So is democracy suddenly taking root in the region? The consensus among democracy advocates is that the reverse is true. Elections, it appears, have increasingly become a tool used by authoritarian leaders to claim legitimacy. "The system is rigged to bring to power people who are already in power," said Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in the West Bank city of Ramallah. From Syria to Bahrain, elections have helped bleed off some internal and external pressure for change without making any substantial alteration to the power structure, opposition political leaders and diplomats said.