Iraqi election 2006

DjaugheOld · December 14th, 2005, 02:58 AM

I found the last paragraph the most interesting.

Quote:

[font=Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Campaigning stops on eve of Iraqi election [/font]
Voters reflect ahead of deciding who will govern their country for four years

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:34 a.m. ET Dec. 14, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Campaigning around Iraq stopped Wednesday to give the country’s 15 million voters an opportunity to reflect before deciding who will govern their country for the next four years.

Streets in Baghdad were eerily quiet the day before Thursday’s election, with police strictly enforcing a traffic ban. Only the noise from an occasional siren, sporadic gunshot or a U.S. helicopter overhead could be heard. Borders and airports have also been closed and the nighttime curfew has been extended in an effort to secure the vote.

A police officer was killed and four others were injured by a roadside bomb that exploded next to an Interior Ministry patrol in northern Mosul, the city’s al-Jumhouri hospital said.

Iraq’s election commission said it had registered 6,655 candidates running on 996 lists and had certified 307 political groups — either in the form of single candidates or parties — and 19 coalitions.

Baghdad is the biggest electoral district with 2,161 candidates running for 59 of the 275 seats in parliament, said the commission’s executive director, Adel Ali al-Lami. There are 33,000 polling stations around the country.

The Interior Ministry was looking into reports that a tanker truck filled with thousands of blank ballots had been confiscated in a town near the Iranian border. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the truck came from Iran and was seized Tuesday in the border town of Badra, about 93 miles southeast of Baghdad.

On the last day of campaigning Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed four American soldiers and gunmen assassinated a candidate for parliament. The American deaths in Baghdad brought to at least 2,149 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the start of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Probe into prisoner abuse
The U.S. ambassador said Tuesday the total number of abused prisoners found so far in jails run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry came to about 120. The statement by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad reinforced Sunni Arab claims of mistreatment by security forces — a major issue among Sunnis in the election campaign.

He said more than 100 of the detainees found last month at an Interior Ministry jail in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district were suffering signs of abuse. An additional “21 or 26 people” were found three days ago at another Interior Ministry lockup, he said.

Khalilzad said the United States would “accelerate the investigation” to determine who was responsible for abuses — a longtime Sunni Arab demand.

Despite the violence, more than 1,000 Sunni clerics issued a religious decree instructing their followers to vote, boosting American hopes the election will encourage more members of the disaffected minority to abandon the insurgency.

While some prominent clerics with links to the insurgency have avoided calling on their followers to vote, the edict is likely to encourage many Sunnis to go to the polls. They hope that more participation will lessen the ability of the Shiite majority to abuse them.

Three of Iraq’s leading politicians agreed Tuesday that a speedy withdrawal by foreign troops before Iraqi forces are ready would cause chaos.

But the three — former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and Sunni Arab politician Tariq al-Hashimi — disagreed on the description of U.S. and other foreign troops. Barzani described them as “forces of liberation,” while al-Hashimi said they were occupiers.

Spirited debate
The three leaders, speaking from Baghdad, appeared in a debate on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. Such debates are rare in the Arab world, where candidates mainly rely on rallies attended by hand-picked followers.

Their comments were noteworthy because they represent important constituencies in the Thursday vote.

Barzani heads the Kurdish autonomous region in the north and is among the country’s most powerful politicians. Allawi heads a religiously mixed ticket in the Thursday election. Al-Hashimi represents a major Sunni Arab coalition.

Al-Hashimi criticized President Bush for saying the United States is fighting terrorism in Iraq.

“Why should Iraqis pay a bill for something they have nothing to do with?” said al-Hashimi, a candidate for parliament. “Terrorism is not the problem of Iraqis.”

The Bush administration hopes the election will draw a large turnout among Sunni Arabs and produce a government that can win the trust of the minority community that is the backbone of the insurgency. That would in turn allow the United States and its coalition partners to begin bringing their troops home next year.

Iraqis living outside the country began voting Tuesday in the United States and 14 other countries. Strong turnout was seen in polling stations around the world, including in Syria, Jordan and Iran, where Associated Press reporters witnessed heavier turnout compared to Iraq’s January elections.

Many Sunnis boycotted the January election, enabling rival Shiites and Kurds to win most of the seats in the interim parliament — a development that sharpened communal tensions and fueled the insurgency. But unlike January’s vote, which elected a government which was to last for less than one year, the new government will be in power for four years.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, a prominent insurgent group, said Tuesday it would not attack polling stations. But it vowed to continue its war against U.S.-led coalition forces.

On Monday, five Islamic militant groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, also promised not to try to disrupt the voting, even though it branded the election a “satanic project.”

DjaugheOld · December 14th, 2005, 05:48 AM

An actual positive article from the NYT's regarding the elections....

Quote:

December 14, 2005

Sunni Bastion Now Turning to Ballot Box

By EDWARD WONG

TIKRIT, Iraq, Dec. 13 - Along the main boulevard here in Saddam Hussein's hometown, hundreds of campaign posters have flowered where insurgents once tossed homemade bombs at American troops.

The guerrilla war found fertile ground in Tikrit, and defiant Sunni Arabs boycotted the elections in January.

But turnout in the parliamentary elections on Thursday is expected to be high, reflecting the shift in attitude of many Sunni Arabs toward the American-engineered political process.

"Last January, the elections were quite different than they are now," Wael Ibrahim Ali, 61, the mayor of Tikrit, said as he strode Tuesday along the grounds of the palace where Mr. Hussein used to celebrate his birthdays. "The people refused to vote, and now they see it was a wrong stand or wrong position."

This Sunni-dominated province of Salahuddin had a 29 percent turnout in January, one of the lowest in the country. In the past year, though, Sunni Arabs, who make up a fifth of Iraq's population, realized they had shut themselves out of the transitional government.

They have been frustrated by the rule of the religious Shiite parties, fearful of their Iranian-trained militias and galvanized by anger over mass arrests and detentions - especially in light of the recent disclosures of mistreatment of prisoners by official Iraqi forces.

"Most of the leaders feel abandoned by the national government," said Capt. Chris Ortega, 28, the head civil affairs officer for the Second Battalion, Seventh Cavalry Regiment of the Third Infantry Division, charged with securing Tikrit. "They feel that because this is Saddam's hometown and province, they're being punished by the national government. They feel they're not getting the proper allocation of resources."

The Sunni Arabs know, too, that Thursday's vote is for a full, four-year government, one whose reach will be far greater than that of the current transitional one.

"The Sunnis have suffered enough from this government," said Dhiab al-Ibrahim, a campaign manager for Mishaan al-Jubouri, a tough-talking Sunni Arab candidate who is popular in Tikrit. "They governed us for one year, and look what they've done to us. What will happen if they rule us for four years?"

This town of 110,000, situated along the west bank of the Tigris River, has become the epicenter of an intense get-out-the-vote campaign by Sunni Arabs, rivaling the flurry of political activity in the Shiite south and Kurdish north. Volunteers for political parties trudge through neighborhoods handing out fliers. American commanders have been meeting daily with Mayor Ali and officers from the Iraqi Army and police, mostly Sunni Arabs, to forge a plan for securing the polling sites, 33 in the greater Tikrit area, 19 in the city itself.

On Tuesday morning, the final shipment of blank ballots to be distributed in Salahuddin Province was loaded onto an Iraqi Army convoy at a warehouse on the outskirts here. The trucks drove south, with an American Apache attack helicopter flying cover.

In the Tikrit area, all the polling stations are at schools, and some electoral officials have already begun setting up the brown cardboard voting booths, two to each classroom.

Inside Mr. Jubouri's campaign headquarters, a two-story villa off the town's main avenue, Mr. Ibrahim and a colleague, Awad Khalaf, watched as their candidate popped up on his own satellite channel. The program showed Mr. Jubouri, draped in a brown jacket, striding proudly through a primary school that he had helped finance in his hometown of Sherkat, 60 miles to the north.

"All the people who boycotted the last elections will vote for Mishaan," Mr. Khalaf said. "He's the voice of this city."

That voice, though, may not be one the Americans want to hear, even though Sunni Arab political engagement is central to the Bush administration's hopes for persuading the insurgency to lay down its arms.

Many politicians here and in other parts of the Sunni heartland are pushing the message of opposition to win over the electorate: Vote for me and I will rid Iraq of the Americans. Or, vote for me and I will thwart the plans of the Shiites and Kurds.

One of Mr. Jubouri's campaign posters shows two violent images: a boy in a blue baseball cap pointing a Kalashnikov into the air, and an American Humvee near a ball of flame. Voting for Mr. Jubouri, the slogan above them reads, "is the best way to end the occupation of Iraq."

Mr. Jubouri took part in the last election and managed to get a seat in the current Parliament. Since the Jubouri tribe is one of the largest in the area, he is expected to do well again in Salahuddin. The tribe is spread out across farming towns surrounding Tikrit, and Mr. Jubouri has spent more time on his campaign stops visiting sheiks in those areas than in the city itself.

Sheik Naji al-Jabara, the head of the local sheiks' council and a member of the Jubouri tribe, has pledged to support Mr. Jubouri.

There are other front-runners here. Residents say Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister and Baath Party enforcer who later broke with Mr. Hussein, is popular. The Iraqi Consensus Front, made up of religious Sunni parties, also has its supporters.

In fact, the diversity of candidates is testament to the popularity of elections here. Mr. Ali, the mayor, said a voter in this province would be confronted with a choice of 48 political groups on the Thursday ballot.

At a Tuesday lunch in the former birthday palace that was attended by Mr. Ali, American commanders and Iraqi officers, one Iraqi Army colonel held up his purple index finger to show a reporter that he had already voted. Soldiers, hospital patients and detainees were allowed to vote Monday.

The colonel, Dakhul Hassan Hamood, a Sunni Arab, said he had decided to support Mr. Allawi, a secular Shiite.

"He isn't prejudiced against Sunnis or Shiites," the colonel said as he sipped a cup of tea. "He's right in the middle. He's the only one who can help us. He doesn't discriminate."

Colonel Hamood commands 1,200 soldiers across half of Salahuddin Province. Before the lunch on Tuesday, he and other Iraqi officials met with American commanders in a palace conference room to try and iron out the security procedures for the next few days. This was, after all, Mr. Hussein's hometown, and one could not be too careful.

Lt. Col. Tom Wood, commander of the Second Battalion, chastised the Iraqis for not ordering their forces to properly install concrete barriers and concertina wire outside the polling stations.

"The biggest threat, I think, is the suicide bomber who tries to get into the election site," Colonel Wood said. "If the bomber's going to try to get something in, he'll walk it in, and that's what we've got to watch for."

The colonel said afterward, though, that he expected the level of violence to be low, as it was in October during the constitutional referendum, when many Sunni Arabs in Salahuddin turned out to vote in order to try and reject the document. (The turnout was 90 percent, and more than 80 percent voted no.)

By Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi police officers and soldiers had already taken up guard positions at the city's polling stations, some wearing black ski masks to hide their identities.

Zuhair Damen, the electoral official in charge at the Khansa Girls' School, said he expected at least 2,000 of 2,800 voters registered at the site to turn out Thursday.

As he began taping up posters with voting instructions, he summed up the ambivalent feelings that many Sunni Arabs here have about finally being drawn into the political process.

"Democracy is better than nothing," he said. "It's not very good, but it's better than nothing."

jenna2891 · December 14th, 2005, 08:52 AM

i thought this was funny:

Quote:

"I thank America and President Bush, everyone that doesn't like what America and President Bush has done for Iraq can all go to HELL."

Dback Jon · December 14th, 2005, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenna2891

i thought this was funny:
"I thank America and President Bush, everyone that doesn't like what America and President Bush has done for Iraq can all go to HELL."

What Iraqi is named Betty?

And she forgot the "And Allah bless Fox News"

krepitch · December 14th, 2005, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dback Jon

What Iraqi is named Betty?

I was thinking the same thing.

Kolo · December 14th, 2005, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dback Jon

What Iraqi is named Betty?

And she forgot the "And Allah bless Fox News"

Surely she's a CIA plant. God forbid an Iraqi actually thinks well of W and America for deposing Saddam.

DjaugheOld · December 14th, 2005, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolobotomy

Surely she's a CIA plant. God forbid an Iraqi actually thinks well of W and America for deposing Saddam.

Hopefully betty's cover won't get blown.

krepitch · December 14th, 2005, 09:12 AM

Here's the video:

http://www.siamlady.com/Movies/gotohell.wmv

She's kind of cute.

Dback Jon · December 14th, 2005, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolobotomy

Surely she's a CIA plant. God forbid an Iraqi actually thinks well of W and America for deposing Saddam.

There are a lot of Iraqi's (mainly Kurds) here in Nashville that say the same thing - I just thought the picture of "Betty" with the Fox News logo was funny....

DjaugheOld · December 14th, 2005, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krepitch

Here's the video:

http://www.siamlady.com/Movies/gotohell.wmv

She's kind of cute.

It wouldn't surprise me if GW invites her fer the State of the Union speech.

LoyaltyisaCurse · December 14th, 2005, 09:44 AM

I have a question...the expatriats (BIM)in the US and other countries, are they exiles or citizens of their new home countries? If they are citizens of other countries now, it seems wierd to me that they get to vote in the elections...

Dback Jon · December 14th, 2005, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoyaltyisaCurse

I have a question...the expatriats (BIM)in the US and other countries, are they exiles or citizens of their new home countries? If they are citizens of other countries now, it seems wierd to me that they get to vote in the elections...

Most of the ones in Nashville fled Iraq to escape Saddam. Some will go back once the situation calms down. Not sure how many are U.S. Citizens yet. But the voting is not unique - U.S. Expats can vote, as long as they only have U.S. Citizenship.

40yearfan · December 14th, 2005, 11:08 AM

Go well election. Go well so we can bring our troops back home and you Iraqi's can run your own country.

AzCards21 · December 14th, 2005, 11:11 AM

When do the results start coming in?

Chris_Sanders · December 14th, 2005, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 40yearfan

Go well election. Go well so we can bring our troops back home and you Iraqi's can run your own country.

We are building permanent bases 40. As much as I love the idea as much as you do, we will be in Iraq for a long time regardless of who is president or what party is in charge.