Elections and Money

This is essential reading on the effect of money on elections in Tunisia. It’s a sour subject that can taint the moment of optimism we have in the cradle of the Arab Spring.

But the article also has its light-hearted moments:

In an effort to shake his party’s reputation as a rich man’s plaything, Mr. Riahi recently dropped by a Tunis slum in his chauffeured Porsche Cayenne, making a videotaped visit to the home of Aouiha Mimouni. Elderly, nearly deaf and unable to remember her own age, she was sitting on a frayed mattress on the cement floor of her dark, unheated room.

After he left the building, Ms. Mimouni said she had no idea who he was or why he had come.

Read the whole thing.