Professor Larry Diamond, CDDRL Faculty Associate, and Director of the Program on Democracy at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law writes in a January 9, 2005 New York Times Op ed piece that holding elections too soon in Iraq could actually be bad for the long term development and consolidation of Iraqi democracy. Diamond warns that badly timed and ill-prepared elections could increase political polarization and violence by effectively disenfranchising parts of the Sunni Arab population in Iraq. Opposition to January 30 elections in Iraq goes far beyond religious fanatics and defenders of the old order to even moderate and democratic political actors who do not see a way for the elections to be held fairly and on time.

Full article available with purchase.

How a Vote Could Derail Democracy

Appeared in New York Times, January 9, 2005

Larry Diamond - Stanford University