It is January 2011 and a wave of optimism is hitting the region as Tunisian dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is ousted from his throne. The people’s pro-democracy demonstrations have taken over and the old tyrannical dinosaurs of Egypt and Libya are quick to follow.
But there is no chance of democracy without the post-revolutionary election and sadly for the rest of the Arab world, not all elections are made equal.
So while the Arab Spring nations were racing to the polling booths to show their support for a new world order, the rest of the Middle East was staying at home.
With the prospect of more of the same, an opposition boycott and allegations of fraud en masse, why should these Arabs rush to cast their ballot?
Governments in Kuwait, Algeria and even Israel, have been cheerfully ignoring their electorate for years, hoping that turnout might top 40% and re-appointing the same old leaders.
We take a look at the other side of the Arab Spring, in a region where elections are often going virtually unnoticed.
Can the region’s revolutionary struggle still find its way into the democratic battleground or will Arab Spring fever simply not get converted into election fervor?
