** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
Iraqis Discuss Voting, Or Not, in Elections Held Amidst Chaos
*With confusion, obscurity and disarray defining the lead up to Iraq’s
elections, even people who have not decided to boycott or stay away in
fear of violence have a reason to dismiss participation in the Jan. 30
polls.*
by Dahr Jamail and Brian Dominick, The NewStandard
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1393
Baghdad, Jan. 17 -- Despite the continuing escalation of violence here,
Iraqi officials insist the country's first-ever general assembly
elections remain on schedule, even if preparations have fallen well off
track in many areas where rebels have caused grave disruptions. While
most Iraqis are consumed with the ever-present tasks of keeping their
families safe, finding fuel for their cars and looking for jobs, there
is much talk around Baghdad of the polls set for January 30.
On Election Day, among eligible Iraqis who do not cast ballots, it will
be hard to differentiate between those holding off for any of various
reasons. There are many who will simply be too afraid to go to their
local polling places. Others will observe organized calls to boycott the
elections in an attempt to withhold legitimacy from the process. And
then there are still more who are just plain disgusted with the system,
how it has been organized and what they see as an utter lack of
legitimacy in even a best-case outcome.
But today, throughout the Baghdad area, there are plenty of Iraqis
willing to express why they will or will not be voting later this month.
"If the US wants, we will have elections," said Aimin, a 43-year-old
owner of an internet café in a predominantly Sunni area of Baghdad,
"because they are planning on installing a pro-US government that will
not oppose any of their policies."
There have been numerous calls for a postponement or outright boycott of
the polls. Mostly from a range of Sunni Arab groups that fear utter
disenfranchisement as a minority, the call has been echoed even by a
prominent mainstream Sunni political figure, Adnan Pachachi, whose own
party is engaged in the campaign.
Especially among the Sunnis of Iraq's populous central region, the sense
for some people that their country is going somewhere without them is
everywhere, and the desperation that accompanies such a shift is
manifesting itself in different ways for different people. A growing
minority is responding with violence, while the great majority seems to
have resigned to helplessness, trusting in neither the gun nor the ballot.
But according to the US-imposed interim Iraqi Constitution, the ball is
rolling down the path to Iraqi "democracy," and nothing can stop it. The
elections must occur before the end of this month. Nearly everyone
agrees that, according to the letter of the law, the Independent
Commission for Elections in Iraq is not qualified to call the polls off
or even to postpone them; neither are the Iraqi or United States
governments.
Yet some Iraqis dispute the practical authority of the year-old
document, insisting that bending rules is what "the Americans" do best.
If the US-led coalition can overthrow a sovereign government in Iraq and
the United Nations can rubber stamp that process, they argue, surely
either Washington or the UN can alter temporary rules established to
permanently replace that regime with a new one.
Some also say that if Iraq is truly sovereign in the wake of last
summer's much ballyhooed "handing over," the interim government could
step up and admit the process is too flawed to go forward under the
current conditions of chaotic insecurity. But such a move would surely
open Prime Minister Allawi and his government up to the opposite
criticism: that they are resistant to relinquish the positions they have
gained through undemocratic means. Besides, many of those currently in
power are situated to obtain seats in the next phase of Iraqi political
history.
"We are not against elections," said Saif, an 18-year-old Shiite biology
student at Baghdad University, "but we are against the timing of them.
Look at the security," he exclaimed.
Asked if he expected to vote, Saif promptly responded: "Even though the
elections will happen, they will not be legitimate, and they will be a
disaster. Anybody elected will be a puppet of Bush." He then concluded,
"I will not vote, nor will anyone I know."
Charges that the United States has unduly influenced the elections are
fairly standard in Baghdad. Since many of the best-known candidates have
worked directly with Washington since long before the March 2003
invasion, or with occupying forces thereafter, Iraqis look upon them
with deep-rooted skepticism. US-funded nonprofit organizations have been
heavily involved in the development of political parties, and there is
widespread suspicion that back room arrangements have been put in place
for months now.
Aimin, the internet café owner, said that the way the elections are
being handled is grounds for consternation, reflecting widespread fear
that even those votes which are cast could be tampered with.
Indeed, the only international "observers" scheduled to assess the
fairness of the polls two weeks from now will be operating out of Amman,
Jordan, according to UN and European Union plans. Those groups' mission
is to ensure that the Iraqi vote lives up to "international standards,"
as the head of the UN's small mission put it last November. How they
will live up to that mandate from such a remote location remains to be seen.
Direct observation of the elections themselves -- which will be held
across some 5,000 to 9,000 polling places if the Independent
Commission's plans come to fruition -- will be monitored by Iraqis
hastily trained and retrained by international organizations, including
American partisans funded by US tax dollars. The number of polling
places changes based on which official is consulted on what day, and
their locations are being kept secret until Election Day, reportedly in
order to discourage planned attacks.
"All of my friends are criticizing the elections and everyone involved
with them," Aimin added sternly, echoing a sense in some areas that what
could be considered "apathy" is actually rooted in beliefs held by large
parts of entire communities. "I will not be voting," Aimin concluded.
But not everyone shares Aimin's pessimism. "There will be legitimate
elections because everyone nominated will bring Iraq to peace," said
Alia Khalaf, a 24-year-old biologist who is looking forward to the
elections. "I will be voting for [current Prime Minister Iyad] Allawi,"
he added.
What Khalaf, a Shiite, actually meant is that he will be voting for the
list of 240 candidates of which Allawi is a leading figure. Though some
individuals are running independently, most candidates only come in
sets, which is one of the factors leading to tremendous confusion and
frustration among even those who are committed to voting at month's end.
Again depending which authority one asks, political parties, coalition
slates and independent candidates, have fielded somewhere between 83 and
256 slates. In many cases, the names of candidates have been withheld
for fear of retribution by rebel groups intent on ruining the election
altogether. Each list reportedly contains the names -- or the
"anonymous" placeholders -- of up to 275 candidates.
Among those names that are made public, Iraqis struggle to recognize
anyone they can put their support behind. With over 5,000 candidates
listed, anonymously or by name, and no one running as a representative
of a particular locale, the task of deciding whom to back is too much
for some. Many Iraqis say they cannot even figure out the differences
between the platforms set forth by various political groupings.
"I have seen the lists, and I don't know any of them," said Mustafa, a
20-year-old physics student at Baghdad University. "I don't know if I'll
vote yet because we don't know any of these people. I can't vote for
someone I don't know."
Because a form of proportional representation will be used to select how
many members of the most popular slates will earn seats on the
275-member National Assembly, even for those Iraqis who find agreeable
candidates on winning slates, there is no guarantee that their favored
politicians will ever hold office.
A 52-year-old tailor in Baghdad, Ibrahim Aziz, shared his aggravation
concerning the chaotic electoral process. "Up until now we, I don't know
anything concerning the elections," he said while mending some suit
pants in his small shop. "Even the government doesn't know who is
nominated. We don't know these lists with no names on them."
"If there are to be true elections there must be names of people we
would be voting for," added Ahmed, a customer at Aziz's tailor shop.
For its part, the Independent Commission tasked with orchestrating the
elections from start to finish, has offered little sympathy for those
voters and candidates alike who feel excluded from the process for any
reason.
Asked during an interview with the United Nations' IRIN news service
what the Commission planned to do to help Iraqis learn more about the
numerous options on the ballot, spokesperson Farid Ayar responded:
"Since 15 December last year parties have been able to promote
themselves. If they haven't done it yet, it's not our problem, we don't
want to involve ourselves in this issue and add problems to ours."
Ayar also dismissed the significance of reports from Iraq's Interior
Ministry that police officers are abandoning the force in droves during
the lead up to Election Day. "Even if policemen are resigning, the
[Defense Ministry] will offer the same security," he said.
Ayar added, "Any delay of elections can only make things worse, and when
the insurgents see that there is an improvement in the country after it,
they will think twice before attacking wrong places or innocent people,"
reflecting assertions previously made that the capture of former
dictator Saddam Hussein, and then the handover of partial sovereignty
from the US occupation government to Iraq's current government last
June, would lead to increased security.
Like the government and the Electoral Commission, some Iraqis hold out
hope, insisting that the elections present the only prospect for peace
in their troubled homeland.
"The elections will happen, and I think they are a good idea," said
Intisar, a 21-year-old college student in Baghdad. "We need a real
government, and this will help with security," she added.
"I think the elections are good and I will vote," said Jassim, a
36-year-old grocery store owner in Khadimiya, a predominantly Shiite
Muslim district in Baghdad. "I hope everybody votes, because the
elections will help, I think."
Still, if current trends continue, there is a significant chance that
far fewer than half of eligible Iraqis will cast a vote on January 30.
The reasons for what could technically be called "apathy" are of course
far more complex than those faced by most countries. The direct threat
of retaliation by rebels, the constant threat of random violence by
terrorists and even concerns that US or Iraqi security forces will
attack or detain voters in certain places all provoke fear among
everyday Iraqis.
Whether from the vantage point of Baghdad or New York, accurately
reporting specific details of each day's events -- or of the overall
situation -- is often close to impossible. Discrepancies are the norm as
unverified claims and rumors abound on television, the internet and the
streets of Iraq alike.
Injecting another level of confusion into the process, several prominent
Iraqis have switched their stances on the elections, changed their
alignments or maintained vague positions in he past two months.
Officials involved with Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr's popular movement
have recently made deeply contradictory statements. While some have said
Al-Sadr wishes to distance himself from the elections, others are
themselves listed as candidates. More still have participated in
promoting the vote, and one Baghdad area Al-Sadr spokesperson told The
NewStandard on condition of anonymity that the widely admired cleric has
not ruled out calling for a boycott.
Meanwhile, the most powerful Iraqi Shiite figure, Grand Ayatollah Ali
Al-Sistani, has not wavered in his support for the elections, which he
has been calling for since last January; but Al-Sistani has so far held
off from specifically endorsing even the slate of candidates that some
of his top aides helped assemble in the venerable cleric's own name.
That has not stopped the group from taking advantage of Al-Sistani's
perceived support, going so far as to include his revered image in some
of their campaign posters.
It is also difficult to gauge the extent to which widespread attacks by
rebel groups have damaged the potential for elections to even be held in
substantial areas of Central and Western Iraq, as well as the northern
city of Mosul, in large part presently under siege by US forces. In
fact, the number, frequency and severity of attacks are likewise hard to
determine, with reports of voter registration sites and materials coming
under assault circulating on a daily basis.
Even determining how many lists of candidates will actually appear on
the January 30 ballot is an elusive task, with the Independent
Commission originally reporting 83, the UN claiming 256 during a
ceremonial ordering of the ballot on December 20, and the Iraqi
Independent Commission spokesperson putting the number at 111 during the
recent IRIN interview.
However the process goes, and whatever its outcome, the one sure thing
is that many Iraqis will refuse to accept the authority of whatever
combination of 275 hopefuls eventually constitutes the country's first
elected assembly.
"The elections cannot be legitimate because we are under occupation, so
I will not be voting, nor will any of my friends," said Layla Hamad, a
Shiite shop owner.
"It's not a matter of elections, because those in power will stay in
power," commented Suhaid, a 23-year old Shiite who is an unemployed
computer science engineer. "This is a big lie and the elections are
illegitimate."
© 2004 The NewStandard
www.newstandardnews.net
--
Gary Williams
http://mycos.blogspot.com/
