Elections

Provincial council candidate Fareeq Khazaali moves through the crowds of shoppers on Mutanabi Street with the confidence and ease of a veteran politician, shaking hands and smiling, as his children, wearing homemade campaign T-shirts, distribute leaflets. When he's not pressing the flesh, he's sending frequent text messages ("Greetings. Please elect your candidate Fareeq Khazaali."

El Salvador's chief leftist party had a strong lead Monday in legislative elections, with 50% of the vote compared with the conservative Arena party's 40%. But the leftists, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, lost their stronghold in the capital, getting 47% to Arena's 50%, with almost 70% of the votes counted. Mayor Violeta Menjivar, running for reelection, conceded defeat to physician Norman Quijano, but accused his party of sending extra voters into the capital.

A new constitution that voters are expected to approve today would give more power to Bolivia's indigenous communities, promote agrarian reform and allow President Evo Morales to seek reelection to another term. But analysts warn that passage of the new constitution also could worsen Bolivia's polarization, throw its legal system into chaos, and discourage investment in the natural resources that are its main ticket to prosperity.

Hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared victory in the Gaza Strip, the hawkish contender to succeed him paid a visit to wounded soldiers and insisted that the enemy had not been defeated. "We have a strong people and a strong military that dealt a harsh blow to Hamas, but unfortunately the work is still not done," Benjamin Netanyahu said before television cameras outside a hospital last week. "Hamas still controls Gaza." That was only the warmup.

Voters appeared to have handed Bolivian President Evo Morales a resounding victory Sunday, with exit polls showing they had approved a new constitution that will advance indigenous rights, strengthen state control over natural resources and permit him to seek another term. Morales addressed a cheering crowd in the plaza before the presidential palace here Sunday night to claim victory and declare that "Bolivia has been re-founded" and that "neoliberalism has been defeated."

The suicide attacks and car bombs don't strike daily in Iraq anymore. People are venturing out at night. But that doesn't mean voters are satisfied with their leaders. In fact, ask them to list their most important issues in local elections Saturday, and security takes a back seat to basic services, the economy and culture, if interviews with more than 20 Iraqis across the country are anything to go on.

Abu Mujahid brags that he bombed a U.S. Army Humvee and wounded two American soldiers just last month. Now he's stumping for Sunni candidates and talking matter-of-factly about the importance of safety as Iraqis head to the polls today. "This is something like a truce so the elections will be implemented in a secure environment," said Abu Mujahid, an active member of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, an armed Sunni Arab group.

Portraits of two Israeli Arab politicians, defaced by red Hebrew letters reading "Shame and Disgrace!" flashed on a giant video screen. Jeering erupted in the hall, packed for the tough-talking candidate whose bid to lead Israel is propelled by unease about its Arab minority. Avigdor Lieberman's attacks on Arabs have shaken up the race for parliament and prime minister.

First there was the "healing through laughter" seminar. Then "Orit the Carpenter," sort of a lesbian Martha Stewart, took the microphone and yelled, "We have seen our share of candidates over the years . . . all oozing testosterone and ego. But I have news for them: We, the woman, can do this!" Later, transsexual pop star Dana International performed a bouncy disco song and announced, "I now formally invite you to the diva sisterhood."

The weather at Razi Elementary School was depressing -- a driving winter rain mixed with occasional hail that soaked prospective voters as soon as they stepped out of their cars. Inside the school, local politicians fretted about the possibility of a record low turnout here in Israel's second-largest Arab city, and among Arab voters nationwide. On the streets, a protest against a right-wing Israeli politician serving as an election supervisor here briefly turned violent.