Election results in two countries

Thursday's terror in Madrid has successfully brought down the government of Prime Minister José María Aznar's People's Party and put in its place the opposition Socialists. Voters evidently blamed Aznar for bringing Spain on side of the US-led coalition of the willing in Iraq, which apparently prompted the deadly bombing attack last week in the capital city. While one sympathizes with the Spanish people's grief and fear, and while there is reason to dispute Bush's foreign and defence policies, one can only regret that al-Qaeda seems now to be in the business of sabotaging the electoral process in democratic countries. This year sees a presidential election in the US. Will the organization now go after the big kid on the block? This is reason for continued vigilance.

In other developments, Russian President Vladimir Putin won re-election by a landslide in his country yesterday, to no one's surprise. Since coming to office four years ago, Putin has increasingly adopted the tactics of his Soviet-era predecessors to consolidate his power. This obviously does not bode well for Russian democracy.