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Please cite an example of a free and fair election in the Middle East prior to 2000. Turkey, pre-civil war Lebanon and Israel are excluded from consideration due to their unique circumstances. For the record, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are monarchies and Syria and Iraq (until recently) have been run by the proto-facist Baath parties since the 1940's. Egypt has never had a free election by anyone's standards, although they are moving that way.
I'm anxious to hear your examples.
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You count King Faysal II as a monarchy in Iraq, however by that point he had no power such as the British Monarcy. In Iraq Parliament held power until 1958 in which the Ba'athist Party took over, amazingly during the time that Abd al-Nasser's biggest power surge. It was the intellectuals and the people who turned away from the liberal era and embraced totalitarianism.
While it is true Egypt never had truely free elections, it is because when they rose up and kicked out King Faud they had deserted the Wafd which worked for 30 years for Democratic elections and embraced the Free Officer's view of Arab Socialism. The Wafd was by far the largest and most powerful political party in Egypt, however their support washed away as they could not secure Egypt international power wich the people wished, so turned twards totalitarian socialism of Nasser. They had the opportunity, and as I said.. THEY turned away from it.