Iraqis are becoming increasingly frustrated about the delay in the formation of a new government five months after last spring's parliamentary elections, and a majority of them believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent public opinion poll conducted by NDI.

The survey, based on 4,000 interviews conducted June 21-26, showed that while no one choice for prime minister had a majority, the leading candidate among those polled was Ayad Allawi, representing the Iraqiyya coalition, which got the most votes in the March 7 elections.

Despite their 20 percent share of the population, Mayan women in Guatemala have limited political and economic power. They have the country’s highest rates of poverty and illiteracy, and, according to an NDI-supported study, are far less likely to vote than any other sector of the population.

Located at the center of historical conflicts in the Balkans, modern-day Macedonia has overcome many challenges since Yugoslavia disintegrated and the country of three million peacefully gained independence in 1991. Escalating tension between majority Macedonians and a sizable Albanian community led to open conflict in 2001 that was staunched by a peace agreement, known as the Ohrid Accords, which has provided stronger constitutional and political protections for ethnic Albanians.

In the decade since the founding of the Community of Democracies, which met June 2-4 in Poland, a major change has been the explosion of technology and the tools it has created, both for those supporting the free flow of ideas and other democratic values and for authoritarian states interested in the opposite, curtailing information and suppressing human rights.