From a legal perspective, corporate shareholders have the right to elect managers, oversee corporate strategy, and serve as the final arbiters of critical questions affecting their company.

FORBES: SEC's Political Disclosure Proposal Will Improve Corporate Governance

This 2009 report by the Public Review Board of Unite Here, formed under a previous consent agreement, says that at the height of the dispute UNITE leaders may have conspired to deprive HERE members of their right to elect their own representatives.

FORBES: Union Suit Against Murdoch's News Corp Rich In Irony

In most every case, the president or president-elect has the right to nominate a person to a given position.

CNN: Career moves in the nation's capital

But the new parliament was at least able to elect a speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi (pictured above, right), an influential Sunni from the embattled northern city of Mosul, and to re-elect the incumbent president, Jalal Talabani (left), a Kurd.

ECONOMIST: But a painful labour is still ahead

In three other regions, centre-right presidents chose to resign after Front councillors helped to re-elect them.

ECONOMIST: France��s right-wing disarray

If European leaders and the voters who elect them glean the right lessons from history and manage to steer their continent away from the edge of the cliff, then we won't see a repeat of that disaster of a global crash.

CNN: What happens to your money during Eurogeddon?

"The president-elect chose Tim Geithner to be his Treasury secretary because he's the right person to help lead our economic recovery during these challenging times, " incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

FORBES: Treasury