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MARCO WERMAN: The use of harsh interrogation techniques is one part of President Bush's complex legacy. Another perhaps more favorable part is the development of democracy in Iraq. Elections in Iraq this past weekend were hailed by some as historic, but reaction in the Middle East is definitely mixed, as The World's Aaron Schachter reports.

AARON SCHACHTER: You could be forgiven for finding joy in the preliminary results of this weekend's Iraqi elections: seven and a half million people voted for thousands of candidates throughout Iraq; there was little election violence, and only slight – if any – election fraud. Perhaps George W. Bush was right that Iraq could be a model for the Middle East. But here in the Middle East, things are not so rosy, especially in the media.

SHARIF NASHASHIBI: They're positive about the election, but still reminding people that, “well, hold on a minute. Iraq still has a long way to go to recover from what happened to it because of the invasion.”

SCHACHTER: Sharif Nashashibi heads Arab Media Watch, a group that monitors Western coverage of the Arab world as well as the Arab media itself.

NASHASHIBI: So there's this kind of dual optimism but also, you know, let's keep things in perspective and not forget what Iraq had to go through to get to this stage. And I think there is a sense among people in the rest of the region that, “if we have to go through what Iraq went through to get these elections, sorry. Thanks but no thanks.” Iraq paid such a price to get where it is now, which is still a very precarious situation.

SCHACHTER: Nashashibi points out that Palestinian elections were another instance where democracy in the Middle East was trumpeted and that led nowhere. Palestinians voted overwhelmingly for Hamas, and the West boycotted the government. But just because Iraqi elections may not signal the birth of a glorious new democracy doesn't mean they're not important or welcomed. Hafed El-Ghwell is with the Dubai School of Government.

HAFED EL-GHWELL: I think Iraq is moving in the right direction. I think the fact that the last few years have awoken finally in the Iraqis the sense that they will not be able to move forward if they keep on dividing themselves along ethnic and religious lines is very reassuring for the region as a whole, the Gulf and Iran and all of the neighboring countries.

SCHACHTER: One of the main things that reassures people is the fact that Islamist parties did not do so well, while secular parties gained votes, including the faction led by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. He's boosted the party's fortunes both by standing up to his American overseers and by facing down militants from his own Shia branch of Islam. But Saleh Almani, of King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, says religion could play a decisive role in Iraq's future.

SALEH ALMANI: True that the religious parties did not do well in these elections, and that's good. But the whole society is changing. The culture of the society is not really secular, and that's problematic in the long run.

SCHACHTER: Problematic, Almani says, because religious factions are more likely to push for a federated country divided along ethnic or religious lines rather than a strong central government. But some suggest Iraq needs a less centralized government and more political representation to make that happen. Michael Knights heads the Iraq Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He says the elections were a good thing, but the devil is in the details. Few noticed, he says, that the well-established national political parties put in place rules that made it harder for smaller, regional parties to gain a foothold in provincial councils.

MICHAEL KNIGHTS: If we're not careful, all elections that happen from this year onwards will be the powers that be legitimizing their own control of the federal government to the extent where all security and economic decision-making will be focused within the hands of a very small number of people in Baghdad – people who may not have the interests of individual provinces at heart.

SCHACHTER: But not everyone thinks the big parties will be able to keep that power for long. For starters, this election law was a one-time-only affair. Mustafa Al-Ani is Program Director in Security and Terrorism Studies at the Gulf Research Center.

MUSTAFA AL-ANI: What we're witnessing now is the impact of the control of the big parties, but definitely in the next Parliamentary elections we're going to see an attempt to change the election law and change the structure, the process of the election.

SCHACHTER: The final results of Iraq's provincial elections are still not out. They're expected within the next three weeks. For The World, I'm Aaron Schachter.

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