Iraqis Go to the Polls

Baghdad street scene on the eve of the elections. Source: Der Spiegel online, March 4, 2010

By MEMRI Staff

For the second time since the 2003 invasion, millions of Iraqis will vote in 18 Iraqi provinces and 16 foreign countries. There are 19 million Iraqis eligible to vote, and it is expected that a significant majority will take advantage of their constitutional right.

Voting started yesterday to allow 800,000 security personnel, health workers and even prisoners to participate under special arrangement. Voting in foreign countries will start Friday and will continue through Saturday.

In Iraq itself, citizens will exercise their right to vote on Sunday, amidst heightened security provisions. However, all election campaigns and activities must cease today, Friday.

In recent days, the campaign has been colorful with posters everywhere and, in the last two days, with cars carrying loudspeakers roaming the streets with song and music.

The exception to this festive mood are the Sadrists, supporters of the radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who have limited themselves to discussions on the air about the coming of the missing 12th Mehdi who, upon reappearing from his hiding in a cave, will spread peace, prosperity and Shi'ism across the country and across the world.

The leaders of the various slates are using every means at their disposal, more to cast aspersions on their opponents than to elucidate their programs. Accusations are flying about fraud. Former prime minister Ayad Allawi told the daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that he was prepared to accept 20 percent fraud on the margin.[1]

Accusations are also flying about interventions by foreign governments in the election process. The Shi'ites are accusing Saudi Arabia, while the Sunnis are accusing Iran of this. Clearly, some of the campaigns are so elaborate that someone residing outside Iraq is extending a generous hand. Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zibari, a Kurd, outdid all the critics of foreign intervention by accusing the whole lot – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Kuwait – and he is probably not very far off the mark.[2]

Of course, there are 19 candidates for every seat in the 325 new parliament. One of the 19 will be elected and most of these who will fail to make the grade will complain about election fraud. This is to be expected in a democracy that is both infant and brittle.

Despite everything else, the election in Iraq is an exercise in democracy, hardly seen or practiced in the Arab countries. It is boisterous, it is competitive, and it is open to all or almost all, if one excludes the few hundred candidates deemed unqualified by the Justice and Accountability Commission under the chairmanship of the pro-Iranian politician Ahmed Chalabi who is ranked No. 3 on the Iraqi National Coalition made up primarily of the Supreme Islamic Council and the Sadrist movement, both groups have a strong ties with the Islamic republic. Chalabi cannot be excluded as a potential candidate for the job of prime minister.

On balance, we are in tune with the Iraqi liberal writer Dr. Abdul Khaliq Hussein who wrote these missives on the eve of the elections:

“Some skeptics would say that the election alone and by itself does not mean democracy. This is true. But we also recognize that there is no democracy without free and honest election. All indications about what is happening in Iraq in festivals and attempt to convince the Iraqi voters suggest the success of democracy. For the first time, the competing forces are engaged in aggressive campaigns…including attacks on the government itself. It is a proof of the presence of freedom. As Thomas Jefferson said: "When people are afraid of government there is tyranny; when the government is afraid of the people there is freedom."[3]