BARE-KNUCKLE DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ

I loved reading this story about the election results and the jostling for position in post-election Iraq. My favorite part, after the reported 58% turnout, was this...

Some Sunni groups have charged that voting irregularities, such as the lack of sufficient ballot papers in Sunni areas, skewed the election. The electoral commission says it will accept formal complaints during a three-day period and certify the results only after the complaints are examined. Mishaan al-Jabouri, a Sunni whose party is likely to win a single seat, said he believes Shi'ite election officials wanted to limit Sunni participation and pronounced the election ''unfair" and ''20 or 30 percent honest." Still, he practically glowed as he declared: ''It's better than Saddam's day. . . . We're talking against the government, and no one's executing us, like before."

If a majority of Sunnis begin to think like this gentleman, and the Shi'ites and Kurds don't overplay their hands (admittedly those are big ifs), then there is a great deal of hope for a democratic Iraq.