Election purgatory, on the way to hell

Elections:  for Americans the ultimate source of legitimacy and state authority, but just for that reason problematic in authoritarian societies and fragile states.  We are watching elections create problems in three markedly different societies these days:

• Egypt’s fraudulent, opaque and somewhat violent elections have undermined the legitimacy of the Mubarak regime, cast doubt on the succession, and raised the specter of intensified ethnic conflict.
  

• Results of Haiti’s first-round presidential poll have generated violent protests by those who believe they were falsified to favor incumbent President Rene’ Preval’s preferred candidate, leading to a review (maybe recount?) by the electoral commission that ran the effort in the first place.

• Most spectacular:  in the Ivory Coast both the incumbent and his chief challenger have claimed victory and been sworn in, leading the African Union to suspend the country’s membership–Europeans, Americans and Africans seem to agree that the challenger in fact won (and they prefer him anyway).
  

Elections are one of the few things the international community can organize (relatively) quickly and effectively, even under trying circumstances. Authoritarian and (sometimes) weak states can also manage the task.  What they find much harder is accepting the results.  Elections distribute power; from power flow money, resources and sometimes life and death.   No one should expect elections to be peaceful unless everyone in the game (and out of it) is prepared to play by fair rules and to accept the results.