This is why Fatah’s leaders just postponed elections in Palestine

Here is the latest from the Washington Posts ‘Monkey Cage’.

This is why Fatah’s leaders just postponed elections in Palestine
Voting in the Palestinian territories rarely occurs when it is supposed to, and this year is no exception. One month before local elections were scheduled across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Supreme Court in Ramallah postponed the vote until it rules on two complaints regarding the authority of Gaza’s court system to disqualify […]

Reince Priebus vowed to punish Republicans who don’t support Trump. It’s an empty threat.
Donald Trump has recently seen a surge of support in national and state polls. But a considerable number of Republicans still refuse to support him. On CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, RNC chairman Reince Priebus warned them: Support Trump now, or face the RNC’s wrath later. But what can the RNC actually do to punish […]

Is the media biased toward Clinton or Trump? Here is some actual hard data.
Trump gets much more coverage, for starters.

Russia has a years-long plot to influence Balkan politics. The U.S. can learn a lot from it.
“A Russian influence operation in the United States is something we’re looking very closely at,” The Washington Post recently quoted an unnamed senior intelligence official as saying. As the article put it: U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow […]

Russians will be voting on Sunday. Here’s what you need to know.
Russian voters will elect 450 deputies to Russia’s State Duma on Sunday, in the seventh election for the lower chamber of Russia’s bicameral Federal Assembly since the legislature’s founding in 1993. Large-scale protests followed the last federal parliamentary elections on Dec. 4, 2011, after widespread reports of electoral fraud and rigged elections. Within days, an estimated […]

Jordan’s holding elections next week. Here’s what to expect.
Jordanians are scheduled to go the polls on Sept. 20 to elect a new parliament. The election has gotten little attention in international media, and even many Jordanians are less than enthusiastic. But there are several intriguing aspects of the vote. It will take place via a new and untested electoral system based on proportional […]

Here’s how African leaders stage ‘constitutional coups’: They tweak the constitution to stay in power.
On Sept. 17, the United States commemorates the 229th anniversary of its Constitution, a document that provides a model for countries around the world. Among the document’s 27 amendments, the 22nd says that “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice […].” Presidential term limits have also been a common feature […]

Blind Lemon Jefferson, ‘Pneumonia Blues’: The Week In One Song
This week: Hillary Clinton temporarily leaves the campaign trail during a bout with pneumonia.

The Kremlin blamed our work when it declared Russia’s most respected polling firm a ‘foreign agent.’
On Sept. 5, Russia’s Justice Ministry declared the country’s leading independent polling organization, the Levada Analytical Center, to be a “foreign agent.” The designation applies to nongovernmental organizations that take part in “political activities” and receive foreign funding. The “foreign agent” label saddles its recipients with burdensome monitoring and reporting requirements. But it’s especially harmful for an institution […]

How migration to the Gulf is influencing Egyptian voters
In Egypt’s first democratic election after the uprisings, Islamist parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour party, dominated the polls. Though much has been written about the organizational efforts of the Islamist groups, one intriguing factor has been overlooked: the formative role of migration to Saudi Arabia for many […]

Zambia’s violent and razor-close election is mired in controversy. Here’s why.
On Tuesday, Edgar Lungu, incumbent president of Zambia, was sworn in for a second term, even though the opposition party is contesting the election results in Zambia’s courts. August’s elections in Zambia were the hardest-fought in a generation. Opposition supporters clashed violently with incumbent party cadres and police, which led to an unprecedented temporary ban on […]

Birtherism was why so many Republicans liked Trump in the first place
Birtherism quickly became a major campaign issue last week when Donald Trump refused to say that President Obama was born in the United States. Instead, he told The Washington Post’s Robert Costa, “I’ll answer that question at the right time. I just don’t want to answer it yet.” Apparently the right time was Friday morning. […]

Here’s what ordinary Arabs think about the Syrian refugee crisis
The United Nations will convene its first ever Summit on Refugees and Migrants in New York on Monday, to be followed Tuesday by President Obama’s Leaders’ Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis. The hope is that these meetings will foster concerted action to address the highest levels of forced displacement since World War II. But in […]

The U.S. and Russia are actually cooperating in Syria. Can it work?
Last week’s announcement of a cease-fire agreement between the United States and Russia seemed to be a major diplomatic breakthrough. The accidental U.S. bombing of Syrian forces instead of the intended Islamic State forces over the weekend represents the first hurdle for the new U.S.-Russia military partnership. It is unlikely to be the last. Months […]