The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

The Buffalo (N.Y.) News

on the Iraq election

Whatever becomes of Iraq — and it remains unknown — it is impossible not to be profoundly impressed by a citizenry that defies mortal threats to do something as ordinary, to us, as vote in an election. Yet that is what Iraqis have done more than once recently, including the recent national elections.

Insurgents lobbed hand grenades at voters. They bombed a voting place. In Baghdad, a family that had just lost a relative to an explosion walked to their polling place. Regardless of anyone's feelings about this war, it is impossible not to be moved by such displays.

The results of the voting are still being tallied, more chaotically than anyone would like, but preliminary results showed voting was close. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was leading in two provinces, while a secular challenger appeared to be drawing Sunni support north of Baghdad.

Much is on the line, including the degree to which Iran may be able to influence its former enemy as American troops prepare to leave the country, seven years after invading. Yet it was plain that the usual concerns of democratic voting — security, jobs, services — were taking a back seat to sectarian issues surrounding the nation's Baathist history. That suggests that Iraq has a long way to go before it ever settles into any kind of normal existence.

But it has the first thing that a democratic nation requires: citizens who understand the value of their votes; everyday people who will risk even death to influence the direction of their country, to the point in Iraq of proudly displaying the iconic purple finger ink that marks them publicly as having voted.

In a country — ours — where we take voting for granted and have even become lackadaisical about the franchise, that ought to be an inspiration.