Khaleej Times | Link to story »
As I flew from Los Angeles to Tunis last week, I read about expatriate Tunisians living in the United States voting freely for the first time in more than 20 years. Some 10,000 expats voted here as part of the Tunisian diaspora. Turnout worldwide was an astonishing 99 per cent of the 54 per cent of the over-18 population that registered. In previous elections, voters were simply given ballots preprinted with the dictator Ben Ali’s name.
On Sunday, I was in Tunisia’s capital with a delegation sponsored by the terrific National Democratic Institute to observe the country’s first elections since Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. Early assessments indicate they were an astounding success: a fair process, huge turnout at more than 900 polling places, and a result widely accepted by Tunisians as well as domestic and international observers.
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