the allawi government extended the state of emergency for another 30 days yesterday. this extension means the SoE will be in effect through the upcoming election in iraq. under the state of emergency law the allawi government is empowered to impose restrictions on speech and assembly that arguably make any type of normal campaigning impossible.
i honestly don't know whether the iraqi election should be postponed or not. but as the problems pile up at some point holding an election switches from a step towards democratization into a complete sham. i'm not sure if we are there yet, it may depend on how allawi uses his emergency powers, and i'm not entirely sure whether we will ever know for sure.
one thing i am sure about, the election will not cure the insurgency problem in iraq. that just seems like common sense to me, but this hasn't yet occurred to some commentators out there.
