11.   Critics say the ex-KGB officer is masquerading as a democrat and that he will bring back the iron rule of the secret police.

12.   Golkar was the party of former President Suharto and dominated politics under his iron rule, regularly winning elections amid claims of vote-rigging.

13.   Karimov has banned Islamic political parties and frequently points toward Afghanistan and the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan to justify his iron rule.

14.   More than half of Romanians say life was better under the iron rule of former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, according to a poll published Friday.

15.   Most Mexican presidents have dominated Congress, influenced the judiciary and held iron rule over their parties.

16.   The election was the result of increasing efforts to end more than two decades of armed, clan-based conflicts and iron rule by military chieftains in Chad.

17.   The dramatic departure last August, seen as a major blow to Saddam, never threatened his iron rule.

18.   The president has warned that the alternative to his iron rule would be war, as in neighboring Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

19.   The unofficial election, staged Sunday by the political opposition, was held to protest the iron rule of President Alexander Lukashenko in the former Soviet republic.

20.   But last summer, he imposed a crackdown on political dissidents in a throwback to the iron rule of his father.