Iraqi "election"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25800-2002Oct14.html

When Iraqis go to the polls Tuesday to endorse Saddam Hussein for another seven-year term as president, they will walk past banners exhorting them to vote "Yes, yes, yes for Saddam," they will cast their votes in buildings festooned with his portrait and
they will deposit ballots – coded to allow authorities to identify a voter's decision – into boxes decorated with slogans of admiration for their leader.

As a consequence, the only real suspense about the outcome is whether Hussein will exceed the 99.96 percent affirmation he received in the last election.

"God willing, this time it will be 100 percent," said Kifah Kazem, 43, a sporting club manager. "It will be an expression of our love for our president."

Iraqi officials hope the result will also send a message to the Bush administration, which has committed itself to "regime change" in Iraq. Administration officials contend that most Iraqis would be happy to see Hussein deposed.

"The political and international circumstances, and the American and Zionist threats, have given the referendum a new meaning," Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf said today. "It's a blow to these criminals."

Or as Kazem put it, the outcome "will be like a fork in the eyes of [President] Bush."

With the U.N. Security Council scheduled to begin debate this week on a new resolution demanding fuller access for weapons inspectors and threatening consequences if Iraq fails to comply, the government here has turned the referendum into a national pep rally, partly to play to the more than 1,000 foreign journalists invited to cover the event and partly to whip up fervor in case Iraq once again finds itself at war with the United States.

Colorful, hand-painted banners have been hung from storefronts and streetlights. A few have been written with the blood of Hussein's most ardent supporters. Most say "Iraq will be victorious" or "Down with America" or "God save our brave leader." Others are variations on the theme.

Baghdad, already replete with posters of Hussein, has been adorned with even more: Hussein in a revolutionary's black beret, Hussein in a green military uniform, Hussein in Kurdish dress, in traditional Arab headgear and even eating a watermelon.

Hussein, 65, who has run Iraq since the mid-1970s, has not done any campaigning in person. In fact, he has not been seen in public by diplomats or foreign journalists since December 2000, when he stood in the cold for 13 hours to watch a military parade, repeatedly firing a hunting rifle with one hand. But he is ubiquitous in the media, which are controlled by the government. His picture is almost always on the front pages of newspapers here, and television stations have been continually showing clips of him waving to admiring crowds.

His campaign song, Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," has been getting lots of airtime.

The government has said nearly 11.8 million people will be eligible to vote. Turnout is expected to be high because members of Hussein's Baath party have been canvassing neighborhoods and urging people to show up when polling stations open at 8 a.m.

At a Baghdad tea stall this morning, a group of men interviewed in the presence of an Information Ministry minder tried to outdo one another when asked at what time they would arrive. "I'll be there at 8," one man said. "I'll be there before the doors open," another interrupted. "I'll arrive at 5 a.m.," a third man interjected.

At one voting site, an elementary school in Baghdad's Saadoun neighborhood, residents trickled in this afternoon – just to check that their names were on the voter rolls. They scanned sheets of green-bar computer printouts tacked to boards in the school's courtyard, which was decorated with streamers and miniature Iraqi flags.

"We are not obliged to come here," said Marcelle David, a retired math teacher. "We are coming to vote because we want to show with all our hearts that we love our president."

Voters will be asked to answer "yes" or "no" about whether they "agree that Saddam Hussein should remain as president." They will be told to mark their ballots behind a curtain and insert them into a box monitored by a judge.

Although government officials contend people have the freedom to vote no, those who do so can be identified by the government because ballots are assigned numbers that correspond to a voter's identity card.

"It would be crazy for anyone to vote no," a Western diplomat here said.

In the previous referendum, in 1995, about 1,200 ballots did not indicate a yes vote. It is not clear how many of those were no votes and what, if anything, happened to those voters.

Iraqi officials have called the referendum an example of the democratic principles in their nation's government. "It will be a free and open election," an adviser to Hussein said recently. "It will be an expression of democracy."

It is unclear whether Hussein will cast a vote. At the elementary school, an election official, Hussein Khazal, said it would be unlikely.

"How can a president say yes or no to himself?" Khazal said. "It is for the people to say yes."

Khazal spent the afternoon making final preparations. Floral curtains donated by someone in the neighborhood had been hung. So, too, had a cream-colored sheet to shield the three wooden desks that will serve as voting booths. The ballot box had been wrapped in shiny paper and decorated with pictures of Hussein. Streamers and paper garlands dangled from the ceiling. A banner in front proclaimed that voting day would be "an Iraqi national message to all our enemies."

Although the sloganeering appears to be playing well in Baghdad these days, one of the men who arrived to check whether he was on the voter rolls said he hoped the referendum would send a message more conciliatory than that being articulated on the banners.

"We're not calling for war," said Bahjed Mika Yacoub, 48, a mechanic who spent 6½ years in the army during Iraq's war with neighboring Iran in the 1980s. "We're calling for peace. We want America to be careful with all human beings. We hate war."
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Wow...a dictator with no opponent who will know exactly all those who voted against him...no wonder he does so well. The Iraqi people are under tremendous oppression.

 

I really thought about deleting that part of the article.

 

Nah...the locals just wonder why they're listening to some woman who loves Hugh. (listen to the song...you'll get it)