The Iraq Elections: Editorials From Al-Ahram

The dead do not vote, writes Sinan Antoon*. But neither, in Iraq, are they counted

Each act in the ongoing and seemingly never-ending Iraqi tragedy has a climactic scene, at times imaginary, at times painfully real. We are now approaching one such scene, and it could well go under the working title "the elections". Initially advertised as the glorious peak beyond which the promised land of democracy lies, the climb is proving to be rocky, if not lethal. The crescendo, as callously scripted and clumsily performed as the overarching narrative, has been disrupted and disturbed, as it was bound to be, by the sounds of explosions, bombings, suicide and other daily pleasantries that accompany Rumsfeldian liberation or its Zarqawian variant. Perhaps Iraq's tragedy is to be plagued by too many liberators. The discursive and rhetorical crescendo and celebratory noise is increasingly drowned out by voices of doubt and dissent from, and on behalf of, those excluded from the process, those who have not been assigned even a step on which to squat backstage.

The logistical mayhem involved in all aspects of the election process and the utter lack of security are among the many obstacles and grounds for questions that will haunt the results for decades to come. And this is to ignore the congenital defect of a sloppy election conceived by, and under, military occupation and lacking even the façade of any international body that might guarantee its legitimacy. Its ominous birthmark spells civil war in capital letters. If anything is guaranteed by these elections it is the institutionalisation of sectarian politics. That the international monitors who are supposed to ensure the fairness of these elections will carry out their task in Amman, Jordan, hundreds of miles away from the Iraqi border, underlines just what a parody is going on.

While not all these dissenting and doubtful voices are necessarily motivated by a genuine commitment to democracy, or a wish to ward off the spectre of a long and bloody civil war, many of them are, and legitimately so. The irony of ironies is that distance seems to endow the electorate with added weight. Iraqis living in, for example, London or Detroit, most of whom are unlikely to return to Iraq anytime soon, if at all, can have a say in these elections. But many of those living (and dying) in Falluja, Mosul and other towns and cities in the provinces lumped under the so-called Sunni triangle, and who are much more likely to be immediately affected by the results of these elections than those of us living abroad, will not be able to vote even if they want to do so. I am not suggesting that Diaspora Iraqis should have no say in the future of their home country, nor that they should not be actively involved in its politics. On the contrary, and I believe that time will show that they, like other Diaspora communities, have a critical role to play in coming decades. But their influence and electoral weight should not surpass that of citizens living inside Iraq.

As I write this it is being reported that of the 300,000 citizens who lived in Falluja before its annihi/liberation, only 10,000 have returned. What these returnees found was a city of ghosts, a city where a standing house is a rarity.

There is no running water or electricity. Corpses were left for stray dogs and large sectors of the city are still off limits to any and all for obscure reasons. The grand promises of reconstruction and rehabilitation once the city was "liberated", issued by the US and Iyad Allawi's regime a few months ago, have evaporated into thin air. Families were told that they would be given $100 as compensation for their houses and a lifetime's worth of belongings. What a cruel joke. I, for one, do not blame them for not being enthusiastic about democratic horizons as they rot in refugee camps outside the city and acclimate to the not so pleasant life of "the internally displaced".

It is not only Fallujans, Mosulites or even predominantly Sunnis who will boycott the elections or be unable to vote. There is a very diverse and representative block of voters, numbering almost 100,000, none of whom will cast a single ballot. The dead, unless they live in Florida, cannot vote. The figure of 100,000 is the estimated number of civilian casualties killed since the war as suggested by a survey carried out by researchers from Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Al-Mustansiriya universities.

The United States is "not interested" -- those were Colin Powell's words -- in the numbers of civilian deaths.

"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks, the war hero.

Not only that, the Iraqi Health Ministry was ordered to stop its own count. What else would one expect from a government that works very hard to shield the citizenry from the sight of its own soldiers' coffins returning home.

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http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/727/re4.htm

Election euphoria hits Iraq on the eve of the much-hyped polls, reports Nermeen Al-Mufti from Baghdad

Iraqis will go to the polls on Sunday to elect candidates with whom they are barely familiar. Because of the worsening security situation in the country, few candidates have been able to campaign properly. But at least one managed to stay ahead of the game. Iyad Allawi, the current prime minister, appeared in a school in Tikrit as well as in Baghdad University, breaking a government ban on campaigning in schools and universities.

Also, "Iyad Allawi, the Man and the Homeland", a series of programmes on the prime minister, ran twice recently on an Arab satellite station. Not everyone is happy about that. Abdul- Aziz Al-Hakim, once a close ally of Allawi's, criticised Allawi's campaigning ploys. In a press conference, Al-Hakim noted that state services are taking part in the campaign. Even police vehicles are distributing Allawi's electoral programme, he said. "I didn't campaign," said one candidate who asked to stay anonymous citing fear for his life. "Candidates on my list campaigned without even mentioning the names of others on the list. You cannot be too careful," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Safety is a major concern for all those contesting the elections. Many still believe the elections should have been postponed. Among them is Defence Minister Hazim Al-Shaalan, who is running on the Iraqiyoun (Iraqis) list of President Ghazi Al-Yawar. The National Front for the Unity of Iraq (NFUI) pulled out of the elections because the US forces arrested its leader, Sheikh Hassan Zeidan Al-Loheibi. The NFUI is a group comprising mostly-Sunni clans.

"Iraq is wounded and those trying to bandage its wounds are only increasing the pain." This is what Wisal Al-Azzawi, dean of the Political Science College in Al-Nahrayn University said when asked about the elections. Posters and placards, the paraphernalia of elections, are all over Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, but they vie for space with the black-rimmed notices that mourn victims of "unfortunate incidents" in the country.

Anti-election groups are attacking polling centres and candidates without mercy. Two candidates on the list of Prime Minister Allawi were the latest victims of attacks. Al-Zarqawi, the man believed to mastermind the attacks, has renewed his threat to candidates and voters in yet another recorded statement. Not even the Higher Elections Committee (HEC) has been spared the turmoil. HEC chief Abdul-Hussein Al-Hindawi has just dismissed one of his aides, HEC spokesman Farid Ayar, after an acrimonious debate.

The government, which is telling the Iraqis to go to the polls, has failed to stop the attacks. Opinion polls conducted by local papers show that most Iraqis want the elections held. But of one million expatriate voters, only 35,000 have registered. Not only is the public concerned over safety. Many resent the presence of the occupation forces, or simply don't know who to vote for.

In Kirkuk, the Turkomans say they are concerned over the cohesion of their city and need to vote so that the country may have a constitution that guarantees their rights. The "Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of the Two Rivers -- Kirkuk" begs to differ. It distributed leaflets calling on the population to boycott the elections "because the winner has been already named and will endorse the presence of occupation forces". The Turkoman community is divided over who to vote for. The Turkoman Front (TF), which claims to be the "sole legitimate representative" of the Turkoman community, controls the only Turkoman satellite station and refuses to give airtime to its rivals.

The Turkomans suspect the HEC is bias to the Kurds. The HEC has approved 90,000 Kurdish voters in Kirkuk. The Kurds claim that the voters are people who have been exiled from Kirkuk in the past, whereas the Turkoman and Arabs say these are people the Kurds brought from other areas to boost their vote.

"The HEC has lost its credibility and neutrality," Hossameddin Ali Turkoman, founder and leader of the Turkoman National Movement (TNM), told the Weekly. He added that HEC has virtually given the Kurds 10 additional seats in the local council elections even before the elections are held. This would give the Kurds a definite majority which they are likely to use to turn Kirkuk into a Kurdish city, something which Turkoman believes conflicts with the history and traditions of the town. Turkoman's TNM is contesting the elections with a list rivalling that of the TF.

The TF, which had threatened to boycott the elections, is holding daily rallies in Kirkuk and other parts of northern Iraq. In these rallies, speakers often assail the HEC and denounce Kurdish attempts to control Kirkuk. But the Turkomans, who are relatively new to the political scene, are unlikely to outmanoeuvre the Kurds, who had years of experience in advancing their cause.

In Al-Anbar, a governorate which has been frequently in the news due to the turmoil in Falluja, another police station has been blown up. The voters are not registered yet. As is the case in many Sunni areas, the government intends to register the voters on the same day elections are held. Security is still shaky. In Hadithah, 280km west of Baghdad, the inhabitants live under siege and say they expect a US attack at any moment. In Heet, 210km west of Baghdad, similar fears have been voiced. Ahmed, a journalist-turned-farmer, said, "we are not against the elections, but against its timing and manner. Who shall we vote for? I want more time given to those who want to help Iraq and the Iraqis, but where are they? Had the Americans announced a timetable for the withdrawal, the elections would have been a time for festivity. The Sunni boycott will affect the writing of the future constitution and upset the equilibrium of this country."

In Mosul, there is no sign of elections. The few posters appear and are removed within hours. Speaking to the Weekly on a condition of anonymity, a one-time candidate for the National Front for the Unity of Iraq, which has just pulled out of the race, said, "although I am not in the race, I do not want my name published. The trouble in Iraq, particularly in the Sunni areas, cannot be resolved through elections. Iraqi expatriates are not taking part in the elections because of the ill-timing. It is hard to see how elections can be held in Mosul under these circumstances. For instance, a garments shop has been bombed because the display dummy was not wearing the hijab. Threats are still being made against [those taking part in] the elections. Who would want to risk his life for something that is doomed to fail?"

In Diyali, which has equal numbers of Sunnis and Shias, the Iraqi Islamic Party has withdrawn from the parliamentary elections but stayed in the race for the local councils. Analyst Ayman Zeidan says the Sunnis do not wish to see the local councils come under Shia control. "This was a smart move, but it came rather late. I was hoping for the Islamic party to take part in the parliamentary elections. We need anything that would restore to the Iraqis their unity and sovereignty. What would boycott and rejection lead to? Those who boycott [the elections] lack a political agenda. They haven't planned for the post-occupation era."

Al-Zarqawi's group, the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of the Two Rivers, is still adamant. The safety of "anyone who chooses to vote is not our concern", the group warned.
Iraqi elections 2005

Iraqis are due to go to the polls on 30 January to elect a 275-member National Assembly. The assembly will then select a new prime minister, a president and will draw up the new Iraqi constitution. According to figures available from the Independent Elections Commission up to 111 electoral lists have been fielded by political groups and independent figures. Al-Ahram Weekly publishes the second group of Iraq's most prominent electoral lists.

Iraqiyoun

The list of interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar, is running under the slogan "Dignity, Security, Justice". Al- Yawar admitted that he understands the argument for postponing the elections, but said that the government does not wish to give "those who carry arms" the satisfaction of having their way. Al-Yawar, whose campaign style is rather subdued, calls for permanent constitution, non-sectarianism, and justice for all Iraqis.

The Kurdish list

While Shia Kurds are running on a separate list, most Kurds have agreed on a unified list backed by the two major Kurdish parties (Talibani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Barzani's Democratic Party of Kurdistan), as well as other Kurdish, Assyrian, and Turkoman ethnic and religious groups. The Kurds want a unified administration of the Kurdish north (currently run by two local governments based in Irbil and Al-Sulaymania), a federal formula on the national level, and the return of several areas "arabised" under Saddam Hussein to Kurdish control.

The right for self-determination continues to be a thorny issue in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Talibani and Barzani want the Kurdish north to stay united with the rest of the country, while governed by an independent Kurdish administration. Some Kurds disagree. Since May 2003, the Referendum Movement has been organising poetry readings and marches and collecting signatures in a bid to create an independent Kurdish state. Non- Kurds are concerned, noting that the Kurds want to extend their control to oil-rich areas, such as Kirkuk, Zamar, and Khaniqin.

The Kurdish unified list calls for a free Iraq with a permanent constitution, a federal and democratic system, and freedom of opinion and creed. Both the Kurds and the Turkomans want all signs of discrimination adopted by the old regime abandoned, particularly the attempts at "arabisation", relocation, detention, and exile of ethnic minorities. The Turkomans, who seek recognition as the third ethnic group in Iraq, want Kirkuk to be city for brotherhood, a place for Kurds and Turkomans, Muslims and Christians. Turkoman officials have voiced concern that the continued clashes in Mosul may impede the ability of voters to go to the poll.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/727/re1.htm

Secular democracy in the shadow of occupation does not sit well with a deeply religious society. But can Iraqi voters abroad make a difference, asks Abbas Kadhim in San Fransisco

The vote of the Iraqis of the Diaspora, living mainly in Western countries, in the 30 January elections was assumed to provide pro-Western parties with some votes that could possibly counterbalance their weakness inside Iraq. Iraqis in Western countries, it was thought, would be the most likely eligible voters to register and, if they did vote, their support would help the pro-Western Iraqi political parties with the most secular agendas.

The truth of the matter is that politicians like Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi may have better chances with the electorate inside Iraq than among those Iraqis living abroad, most of whom remember vividly the dirty cock-fighting of politicians like Allawi across Europe and North America. Sadly, the same polluted atmosphere continues, but in Baghdad. Close observers can immediately see that today's thuggish and crude politics in Iraq are the exclusive property of those politicians incubated in Western capitals. Along with the terrorists and religious fanatics, these politicians are responsible for the continuation of the misery in Iraq and for providing the pretext to extend the duration of its occupation.

It is no wonder then that, by the last day of voter registration, Iran witnessed more registered voters than the US and Britain combined. An embarrassing figure of one in nine expatriate Iraqis registering for voting -- in countries where there are no car bombs or Zarqawi ghosts -- is a sign of apathy. And this among the Iraqis most familiar with the practice of democracy -- those who understand well the importance of elections but also value their votes and feel the danger in casting a vote to a cluster of nameless and faceless candidates.

Democracy ought to be a transparent process. But Iraq is turning gradually to the politics of secrecy and the economics of cash transactions. The new Iraq is a state of veiled police, veiled politicians and veiled citizens. The only visible faces are those of terrorists and the faces of con artists in and out of the ranks of government. This is hardly going to inspire Iraqis to take the pilgrimage from their homes to remote registration centres. Instead of extending the registration period to accommodate the larger numbers inside Iraq, the extension was made to beg a few more eligible voters living abroad to minimise the size of another debacle.

There are reasons for the low turnout during the registration phase, which is going to be even lower on the day of elections, as many registered voters would probably not make it to the polls. The first reason is the design of the registration process. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which is monitoring the Iraqi vote abroad, was given the contract very late. Therefore, less than a month was available to prepare for the registration of communities stretching out across seven continents.

The second reason concerns the registration process itself. Eligible voters were required to show up to register and then return one more time to vote. In countries like the US and Australia, this would have many voters travel thousands of miles, twice, to participate. Here, in the San Francisco Bay area, Iraqis would have to go to Los Angeles, the nearest registration centre. As it happened, a group of Iraqi men made it to LA, but not their wives -- who had to stay with the children back home. Why, one wonders, were people not allowed same-day registration or registration by mail -- similar to voter registration in US elections?

The third reason for the low level of enthusiasm among the Iraqis of the Diaspora is the lack of inspiring candidates. This is especially true in the case of voters living in the West, in sharp contrast to the impressive registration reported in Iran. The overriding factor for these would-be voters in Iran is not particularly the candidates of the Unified Iraqi Alliance, but the fact that this list enjoys the support of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who almost made it mandatory for Iraqis to vote. In other words, the numbers in Iran are mobilised by religious allegiance rather than political loyalty.

At the end of the day, the vote of Iraqis in exile is not going to change the outcome of the elections or even influence it in any significant way. Especially so, since the vast majority of the voters abroad is expected to follow the same voting pattern of their compatriots inside Iraq. There is however a symbolic significance for the effort of luring in the secular exile vote. Secular democracy at the threat of smart bombs does not sit well with a deeply religious society.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/727/re5.htm