Political Parties

The opposition party said Thursday that it would not participate in a presidential runoff, and spokesmen for its candidate and President Robert Mugabe said both would attend an emergency summit of southern African leaders this weekend.

When they vote this weekend, Italians can choose among any number of convicted felons or the odd TV go-go dancer on the ballot. Not to mention the personal friends, relatives and, in one case, the physical therapist of party leaders putting together potential governments. Crime does not disqualify you from running for office in this country, nor are qualifications necessarily necessary.

Zimbabwe's security crackdown intensified Friday as riot police raided the opposition movement's headquarters in the capital city of Harare, arresting hundreds of people, including many rural activists and their families who had fled recent violence in their home districts. Opposition officials said more than 200 armed riot police raided the building and arrested about 300 people. Police said they had a warrant to search for "suspicious individuals."

The bad news has come from Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi -- a string of unexpected Republican defeats in congressional elections that have prompted GOP leaders to say, with candor unusual in politics, that the party is facing an outright catastrophe this November. Increasingly, top Republicans are calling on their party to reinvent itself or risk driving away more voters and donors. The GOP image is so stale, said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.

Members of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's political bloc announced Sunday that the group would not compete as a party in coming local elections but would endorse candidates. The decision appeared aimed at allowing the Sadr movement to play a role in the Iraqi elections despite a government threat to bar the bloc from fielding candidates if it did not first dissolve its militia.

At meetings across the nation, officials of Zimbabwe's ruling party have warned voters how they will know who casts ballots against longtime President Robert Mugabe in Friday's scheduled runoff election: serial numbers. The officials tell people that the ballot number will allow the ruling party to identify who has voted for the opposition so that they can be killed later, according to people who attended meetings in three neighborhoods around Harare, the capital.

With the economy and gasoline prices a high-octane source of political anxiety, congressional Democrats pushed legislation Thursday aimed at oil companies and speculators, which they have targeted as culprits. The bills, many with catchy names, are unlikely to become law. But that may not be the point. Looking ahead to the presidential election, lawmakers from both parties are stepping up efforts to highlight their differences, especially on energy policy.

When Turkey's highest court convenes today to weigh whether the country's ruling party should be shut down, the dry and formal language of the courtroom will mask a struggle that has bedeviled this republic since its tumultuous founding nearly 85 years ago. In an overwhelmingly Muslim but avowedly secular state, the legal confrontation illuminates the deep divide between the devout and those who are determined to keep displays of piety from public life.

In 2004, Republicans managed to put measures on the ballot in 11 states to ban same-sex marriage, a red-hot family values issue that boosted conservative turnout and played a role in President Bush's reelection. The strategy seemed certain to have a prominent place in the GOP political playbook. But four years later, few key battleground states will vote on propositions likely to excite conservatives. Republicans have been tripped up by mishaps and errors that have kept measures off the ballot.

Turkey's highest court Wednesday decided against outlawing the ruling party, which had been accused of attempting to advance an Islamist agenda in officially secular Turkey. The narrow verdict, which came after three days of closed-door hearings, averted what could have been a drawn-out political crisis but did little to address fundamental tensions between religiously observant Turks and their more secular-minded compatriots.