HUGE turnout in Iraqi elections

Fantastic news from Iraq...surprised it hasn't been talked about already. This has been a top news story the past couple of days...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...6dec16,0,4188865.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Voters Flock to Iraqi Polls
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer


BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqis across ethnic, sectarian and religious divides voted in droves Thursday in a high-stakes election that could determine the course of the nation and the success or failure of the U.S. effort to promote western-style democracy in the Middle East.

In Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, and in tiny hamlets along river valleys, in the mountainous Kurdish north, the marshy Shiite south, and the arid Sunni Arab west, voters sensed the day's gravity and packed the polling places, dipping their fingers in purple ink after casting ballots for a full-time 275-seat legislature.

"May God protect Iraq and Iraqis," voters in the Sunni city of Fallujah chanted as trays of rice and meat were carried into the election center, compliments of a local sheikh with tribal ties to the insurgency.

Thursday's election, the third nationwide vote in 11 months, will decide the composition of the legislature that will form a four-year government, the country's first permanent administration since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Its results will determine how much and how quickly Iraq will move toward a federal system with several semi-autonomous regions after decades under Saddam's dictatorial Sunni-dominated central government, how much it will adopt Islamic principles after decades of secular rule and whether it will move closer toward Shiite Muslim-led Iran to the east or pro-U.S. Arab regimes to the west.

U.S. officials hope the vote will stabilize the country and allay domestic fears that Iraq has turned into a political and military quagmire with no foreseeable end.

"There's a lot of joy as far as I'm concerned in seeing the Iraqi people accomplish this major milestone in the march to democracy," said President Bush at a White House meeting with Iraqi out-of-country voters. "I believe freedom is universal. I believe the Iraqi citizen cares just as much about freedom and living a free life as the American citizen does."

In Iraq, Senator Joseph Biden, D-Del., said the American people are watching the election and post-election period closely, knowing that a harmonious and inclusive Iraqi government is a step toward bringing U.S. troops home. He issued what he said was a challenge to Iraqi politicians to rise above sectarian tensions and petty rivalries which plagued the formation of an interim government after January's vote and also surfaced later during the drafting of a national constitution.

"After the elections, (the American people) will be looking to see what's next. Will the country come together, or will it fall apart?" said Biden, after visiting a polling station in the southern city of Hillah. "Now the hard part of democracy comes. After you choose the leaders, are they going to be able to come together?"

The top U.S. commander in Iraq said Thursday that voter turnout in the largely Sunni Anbar province "increased fairly substantially" over the October levels. Gen. George W Casey also said he expects the insurgency will "gradually reduce as the root causes of the insurgency are addressed."

Even with Thursday's balloting, however, Casey predicted continued violence and political turmoil as Iraqis work to forge a new government. During the first six months of 2006, Casey said, he expected "fairly divisive" fights over amending the Iraqi constitution and the issue of federalism for Iraq's main principal ethnic groups.

While final results won't be available for days, the election may well be remembered as one that cemented Iraq's new political status quo: a big Shiite religious bloc with clerical backing is likely to grab the most seats; the Kurds with at least 20 percent of the votes and seats will maintain their grip on Kirkuk and on ministries in Baghdad; Ayad Allawi, the great secular hope for the U.S. and Iraqi liberals, is likely to again dash expectations by falling short in the popular vote; and the minority Sunnis, once they find having a parliamentary platform won't mean they can simply boot out American troops, are likely to remain angry and resentful.

Election officials estimated that between 10 million and 11 million of Iraq's 15.5 million registered voters turned out, equal to or more than the turnout during the October constitutional referendum.

With a strong Iraqi government security presence, violence was relatively low compared to the country's daily litany of bloodshed. There were five known deaths caused by insurgent attacks. An attack on a polling site west of Kirkuk left two police officers dead after a 30-minute gunfight, a police official in the oil-rich northern city said. A roadside bomb near Baqouba northeast of Baghdad killed one and injured four. A Tall Afar civilian was killed by a mortar shell additional mortar rounds fell on the capital and Mosul, causing caused several injuries, including to a 7-year-old girl in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. A school guard in Mosul was also killed in an insurgent attack Thursday.

Of the country's 6,246 polling stations, 162 were closed Thursday for security reasons. In volatile Anbar province, 20 fewer voting centers were shut down Thursday than were in the October election.

Election officials reported minor irregularities, including ballot shortages and frustrated voters who couldn't find their names in registration rolls. A surge of late voters election centers around the country open an hour past the voting deadline. An Allawi spokesperson in Basra complained that activists for the ruling Shiite coalition were using police cars and loudspeakers to ask people to vote for their ticket despite a ban on election campaigning that took effect on election eve.

Both Iraqi and U.S. officials have hoped that with Sunnis not boycotting the election, they will get a bigger seat at the political table and cut back on insurgent bombing attacks.

"If we get more seats, it will be quieter," said Amer Fadhel Hassani, 45, the Sunni owner of an electrical supply store in Baghdad. "The ones who were absent in January will now have a voice."

But among voters from the Sunni Arab communities dominating the insurgency, most said the fighting against the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces will not stop.

"The resistance will continue," said Qessan Nasseri, a 47-year-old Sunni Arab accountant and member of the same tribe as Saddam Hussein. "Nobody wants America on Iraqi soil. As long as we are occupied, no one will lay down their weapons."

Voters chose from a kaleidoscopic array of candidates, coalitions and parties to fill the council of representatives. But Iraq's election rules and demographic realities will likely give one ticket a commanding status: the Shiite Muslim United Iraqi Alliance, which dominates the incumbent government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Though improbable that it will match the 48 percent of votes it received in January, the coalition of political parties representing the country's Shiite majority will almost certainly be the largest-voter getter, giving it first crack at forming a government.

Many Sunni voters Thursday said they had not voted in January's parliamentary election either as part of a boycott or out of security fears. They voted with enthusiasm Thursday, mostly for a coalition of Sunni parties and organizations called the Iraqi Consensus Front and for a slate led by Arab nationalist Salah Mutlaq but in some cases for the secular list led by former interim Prime Minister Allawi.

"I didn't vote in January because at the time the political realities were not clear," said Abdul Samariyee, 65, a retired tax collector in Baghdad's Qadasiya district, where police were spotted driving a pregnant woman to the polling station. "Now, Iraqis have begun to realize that the peaceful way is better than violence to get their demands."

Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux and staff writers and special correspondents in Baghdad, Basra, Baqouba, Erbil, Fallujah, Hillah, Kirkuk, Mosul, Najaf, Ramadi, Samarra, Samawa, Sulaymaniyah, Taji and Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

 

Don't mind FrenchieBlade. His history of selective reading comprehension is well known.

The liberals hate this news. They really do. It makes them upset that things went so well.

 

Unbelievable. When a sentence starts with the phrase, "This is good news, BUT....", then the focus is not on the good news. I can't believe that I have to explain that to you. Seriously, you have a selective reading issue that needs to be worked out of your system.