SAY IT WITH VOTES:

Tunisia opposition shows rare unity ahead of polls (Gulf News, October 24, 2004)

President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in power for 17 years and accused by critics of seeking a presidency-for-life, is widely expected to win a fourth five-year mandate today.

More than 4.6 million voters in the small North African country will also elect 189 members of parliament, with the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally expected to keep a tight grip on the legislative house.

The rally, late on Friday night and into the early hours of yesterday in the capital Tunis, was the largest held by the opposition in years, witnesses said, and the first time the small and fragmented opposition presented a unified front.

"The enemies of transition to a genuine democracy are trembling now. With us staying together, Tunisia will not be the same the day after the election, whatever the results," Mohamed Harmel, head of the secular Attajdid party, told the crowd.

That's how democracy works--no reason it won't work there as well as anywhere else.

MORE:
Bahrainis back family law plan (AMIRA AL HUSSAINI, October 24, 2004, Gulf Daily News)

THE majority of Bahrainis back the idea of a family law, according to a nationwide poll.

A written law would protect the rights of women and children and the family as a whole.

The new law should be in line with Islamic Sharia (law) and drawn up by a panel of religious scholars from the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, as well as law-makers and experts in family issues, according to the field study.

The survey, commissioned by the Supreme Council for Women and conducted by the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research, shows that the majority of the 1,300 people polled were strongly in favour of a family law.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 24, 2004 7:36 PM