Why elections are the least of my priorities in the Middle East

It does not matter anymore.  Do you see why I would never ever consider elections to be a matter of priority? There are tons of real reforms that we need to implement before we reach the point where we can call for free elections.  Cleaning up the economic systems and freeing our countries from foreign intervention in many forms is the priority.  No elections are meaningful before we first implement changes in the economic and banking systems where a special electoral commission can monitor all banking transactions within a year prior to an election.  There should be strict monitoring in that to ban the transfer of foreign money.  No, An-Nahda did not win in Tunisia: it was not an election between parties.  It was merely a competition between Qatari money (which went for An-Nahda) and between US money (which went to the "liberal" business parties).  Qatari money won against US money.  As simple as that. Just as the last parliamentary election in Lebanon saw a competition between Saudi money and Iranian money (Saudi money won).  It is a sham.