First the Good News: A Woman is Runner-Up in an Arab Presidential Election

And yes, it is a "good news, bad news" line: the bad news is that the winner got 90% and she only got 4%. To no one's great surprise, Bouteflika won. Supposedly with a little over 90% of the vote, 77% turnout. If there's anything worthy of note about this it's that a woman candidate ran second — veteran leftist Louisa Hanoune — though I'm not sure if a little over 4% of the vote is a triumph for Arab women in politics. She was probably the best known of the second-string opposition figures who bothered to run, but it's still a first (if with a very important asterisk) that a woman ran second. (She's run for President before, though.)