Voting In The Iraqi Elections... From The Bay Area

The Iraqi reconciliation conference in Cairo, extremely under-reported in the US media, was a turning point in Iraq’s post-war politics. In spite of the many contradictions and disagreements, it managed to come out with some very important resolutions and political declarations which included asking the occupation forces to schedule pulling-out their troops. Despite all of my doubts concerning the effectiveness of politics in a time when the Bush administration does not seem to pay attention to non-violent forms of resistance, I decided for the first time to take part in post-war Iraqi politics as a gesture of symbolic support for the growing government in Iraq.

The Iraqi elections system is very simple and elementary: it is a basic example of representative democracy where Iraqis vote for one political entity (individual, party or a coalition of parties), giving this entity the needed authority to “rule” the country in a way that may not necessarily correspond to the voters' demands. There are 467 political “entities” (individuals or parties) who voters can vote for, many of these 467 entities are also a part of the 20 coalitions, each of these coalitions include anywhere from 2 to 18 entities. The bigger 5 coalitions, the ones expected to trigger most of the votes, include two small secular and mixed coalitions breaking the religious/ethnic divisions, and three major religious and/or ethnic coalitions. The political platforms for all the top ten coalitions included one or more points about ending the occupation. Even the most pro-occupation candidates seemed to be promoting the end of the foreign intervention.

I hope this Iraqi election will not be used, like the prior ones were, as another benchmark for the US administration in Iraq marketing the brand-new “plan for victory”. I hope it will not be another unheard scream for sovereignty and independence from millions of Iraqis who are losing patience.

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2005/12/vote-towards-freedom.html