trapo n.— «In the 1987 legislative elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL)—which exposed President Ferdinand Marcos’s attempts to rig the 1986 elections—did not contest the election of many traditional politicians...
babalog n.— «The Babalog are gearing up for the party ahead (everything’s a party, darling, when you get to the bottom of it). Their idea of grass-roots level democracy does not go beyond checking their own manicured lawns for weeds. Don’t be...
Fujimorazo n.— «The 1990 election of Alberto Fujimori, a political “outsider,” was an appeal by Peruvians for a strong hand at the helm as the country weathered the storms of economic chaos. Fujimori wasted little time in dissolving Congress and...
booth capturing n.— «Police said that the deaths and injuries occurred during clashes between rival parties, police gunfire to break up disturbances and incidents of “booth capturing,” a uniquely South Asian election phenomenon in which armed...
watermelon n.— «Major Robert D’Aubuisson, leader of the ultra right Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), likes to compare the Christian Democrats to a watermelon. “Green (the Christian Democrats’ official color) on the outside,” he says, “and...
Dover test n.— «As it stands, congressional support for the Haiti mission is too thin “to pass the Dover test,” said Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), referring to the Dover, Del., Air Force base where the bodies of any U.S. soldiers killed in Haiti will...