Comment by bitsage

I find it disingenuous to attribute the popular vote to Machado. The candidate that represented the alliance was Edmundo González and it was for him that the voters cast the vote. He is perceived by the public as a centrist / centre-left. He is someone who has worked under both Hugo Chavez and Carlos Andrés Pérez. Machado might have helped swing some right-leaning voters to him, but it is doubtful if Edmundo González could have managed to swing the left-leaning voters to vote for her, if she was the candidate herself.

As for Iran, you need to look beyond the perspective of "repressive" regime or an "army run" nation. It is only culturally "repressive" when you compare it to the western cultural norms. For a muslim middle-eastern country, it is actually quite moderate. And it is the only middle-eastern nation that has a functioning stable hybrid-democracy while most of the other middle-eastern countries are run as kingdoms by their Shieks (supported by the west). Moreover the Ayaotallah does have a huge support base amongst the religiously inclined, who do belive that their country's political system should have an Islamic influence. To understand this better, just look at the right-leaning politics emerging in the US and Europe about preserving the country's Christian culture - many of them are elected on that platform and if they come to power, can anyone say it is undemocratic? Further, it is important to understand that the Ayatollah is the equivalent of a Pope to the Shia muslims. Imagine the politco-religious turmoil that will take place in the west if an attempt is made to get rid of the Pope from the Vatican. I am sure many Iranians don't want to mix religious with politics. But I can assert with confidence that they are currently in the minority.