Both Europe and the United States prefer not to look too closely at the army's political role and the army seems aware that this tolerance depends on the semblanceof a democratic process being kept in place.
The "battle" for liberal democracy and some semblanceof international order "has been being won because the U.S. has been putting out the effort for it, " he says.
That's unless the television and radio advertising campaign now under way can engender some semblanceof public awareness in a region comprising five of the 41 police force areas outside London where elections are being held.