Prior to the election, more than fifty of Doe's opponents were murdered.

Prior to June 2005, the Maldivian political system was based on the election of individuals, rather than the more common system of election according to party platform.

Prior to the election of the Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II in 1978, the last non-Italian was Pope Adrian VI of the Netherlands, elected in 1522.

Prior to the 2000 election the media typically alternated which color represented which party each presidential election cycle.

Prior to his election, Stephen had been the cardinal-priest of St Anastasia in Rome.

Prior to his election as FIFA President, Blatter was a senior FIFA official for 23 years.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the African Union Commission praised the election for taking place with " calm and serenity " Prior to the 2009 election, Tunisia amended its constitution to allow more candidates to run for president, allowing the top official from each political party to compete for the presidency regardless of whether they held seats in parliament.

Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin had been elected President of Russia in June 1991 in the first direct presidential election in Russian history.

Prior to Prince's election black clergy made political endorsements and served as appointees to the Richmond School Board and other boards throughout the city.

Prior to the 2002 election Queen Anne's County was run by three Commissioners.

Prior to his election as president in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek had insisted that he be premier under the new Constitution, while allowing the president ( to which Chiang nominated Hu Shih ) be a mere figurehead.

Prior to Aristide's election in 1990, there were just 34 secondary schools nationwide.

Prior to the election of Aristide, health care services had been primarily concentrated in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Following the election of Prior Ernulf in 1096, Lanfranc's inadequate east end was demolished, and replaced with an eastern arm 198 feet long, doubling the length of the cathedral.

Prior to the start of the 2011 – 12 season, Athletic Club's socios ( full members ) held their latest presidential election, which saw incumbent Fernando García Macua defeated by former long-serving player Josu Urrutia.

Prior to the 2006 general election, the county was a dry county, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Prior to Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry's selection of Senator John Edwards, Vilsack was thought to be high on the list of potential running mates for Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

Prior to the 2004 election, Buchanan announced he once again identified himself as a Republican, declared that he had no interest in ever running for president again, and reluctantly endorsed Bush's 2004 re-election, writing:

Prior to his election as President, Köhler had a distinguished career in politics and the civil service and as a banking executive.

Prior to the 2006 election the party's Central Committee relinquished control of selecting the Knesset list to the ' rank and file ' members at Netanyahu's behest.

Prior to his call for an election, Charest revealed his platform which included income tax cuts of about $ 250 million dollars.

Prior to entering provincial politics, Klein considered himself a Liberal Party supporter, although he did support the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney in the 1988 federal election .< ref >

Prior to the Gulf War in 1990 – 91, when the Intifada's intensity began to wear down, Arafat supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and opposed the US-led coalition attack on Iraq.

Prior to attending university, he began a career in politics.

Prior to the development of the formal Juno award ceremonies, RPM Magazine began polling its readers in 1964 to determine which artists and groups were considered the best in Canada.

Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protests about local racial segregation which began quietly in Franklin Street restaurants led to mass demonstrations and disturbance.

Prior to the United States ' involvement in the conflict, construction began on MacDill Field, the predecessor of present day MacDill Air Force Base.

Prior to the 1980s when there were no 24-hour news channels competing with Front Page Challenge, each round of the game began with silent black and white newsreel footage of the news story in question while a narrator, not heard by the panelists, summarized it.

Prior to creating Garfield, Davis worked for a local advertising agency, and in 1969, he began assisting Tom Ryan's comic strip, Tumbleweeds.

Prior to the start of the Revolutionary War, the early Quaker settlers became dissatisfied with the quality of the farmland within Newberry Township and began moving out of it.

Prior to one of the biggest fights of his career, Mosley began training with Naazim Richardson.

Prior to the introduction of the Bulletin Board System ( BBS ), modems typically operated on direct-dial telephone lines that always began and ended with a particular modem at each end.

The Prior at Winchester began to lease Fleet Ponds and the pastures there to a tenant at Fleet Farm, at an annual rent of 23 shillings and 4 pence plus “ a hundred of the fishes, pike, tenches, perches, bream and roaches, to he carried and delivered ( to Winchester ) in a good and fresh state ”.

Prior to this, the service was operated by Rapid Transit, Inc., which began bus service in Winthrop on January 28, 1940, the day immediately following the abandonment of the former Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn " Narrow Gauge " Railroad.

Prior to the 2003 season, Alou was named manager of the Giants, the team where he began his professional baseball career, replacing Dusty Baker who had left to manage the Chicago Cubs.

Prior to the 1990s and 2000s no serial in Shōnen Sunday had run over 40 volumes, but that began to change with series such as Meitantei Conan, MAJOR, InuYasha, Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi and Karakuri Circus, which maintained a high level of popularity.

Prior to the advent of temperature control fermentation, the late harvest dates for Nebbiolo meant that the wines began fermentation when the weather turned cold.

Prior to Marr the programme had a number of regular secondary presenters including Ken Sykora, Kenneth Robinson ( who began in 1971 during the Baker era ), Rosie Boycott, Catherine Bennett and Lisa Jardine.

Prior to the phylloxera epidemic, wealthy Chilean landowners were influenced by their visits to France and began importing French vines to plant.

Prior to major hydrologic modifications that began in the early 1900s, the river was wider and deeper and generally flowed more slowly due to a relatively small difference in elevation between Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington.

Prior to World War I, thousands of Percherons were shipped from France to the United States, but after the war began, an embargo stopped shipping.

In about 1476 Rosselli began a cycle dedicated to Filippo Benizzi, fifth Prior General of the Servites, which was then completed by Andrea del Sarto 1509 – 10.

Prior to her departure she began portraying Kelly Cramer on ABC's One Life to Live, also making brief appearances on All My Children, until she departed in 2006.

Prior to 1969, Adachi began submitting works to the manga magazine COM.

Prior to the new Ground Training Program, which began officially on 24 June 1946, some training was carried out by individual units, primarily physical engineering, bombardiering, and armament.

Prior to the 2001 season, the university began a program of modernization of the stadium by enclosing the southern endzone with seats, and the state-of-the-art Murphy Center ( named for Wendell Murphy ) was built behind it.