Iraqi President: Most People Won't Vote

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s president predicted Saturday that most of his country's people will not go to the polls for a historic election Sunday, mostly because of security fears.

"We hope everyone will participate," President Ghazi al-Yawer said at a news conference the day before the vote. "But the majority prefer not to participate for fear of going out to polling stations."


He said a minority of people would not vote because they were boycotting the vote for political reasons. But he predicted most of those who stay away would do so because of their fears of attacks.


Overall, al-Yawer predicted that a majority of the country's eligible voters would not show up at the polls.

[cthrumatrix]

1. okay - so will the all the US media declare this a "failure" and share

how the whole thing was a sham to begin with --- NOT

[leftchick]

4. they spent Millions sending thier anchors over there...

to hide between the soldiers as they proclaim what a success it all is!

[neweurope]

24. The US government (Rice) already pressured Germany to declare

the sham a "success" regardless the outcome. In exchange for "tolerating" the negotiations of France, Germany and Britain with Iran.

----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Dirk39]

38. Do you have a source? n/t

[neweurope]

42. Spiegel online...

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,339306,00....

I'm not good at translating from German, but here's my try:

...Rice signalized that they would keep letting the three EU-States Germany, France and Great Britain negotiate to limit the Iranian nuclear program...
To the joy of the German delegation Rice made clear that she’ll make Iran and the middle east conflict - other than Powell – a chief topic.

With a view of the Bush-Visit on Feb. 23rd the Americans however also have troublesome demands: The German government should react positively to the elections in Iraq in any case. Any criticism - for instance on a too small turnout – only would burden the democratic process, arguments the Bush administration.


---------------------

Remember Fallujah!

[Dirk39]

44. Thank you, I'm German....

This is really a highlight of the new/old administration:

"The german government should react positivly to the elections in Iraq under all circumstances and whatever is happening!"

(If you don't do, what we have told you to do, we liberate Iran and organize free Iraqi-style-elections there too!)

That's really a choice, Aunt Condi!

Dirk

[neweurope]

45. Yes, isn't it - made me very angry.

Grüße nach Hamburg

------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[sonicx]

2. lowering the expectations...

typical.

[Demit]

3. How could anyone call this anything but a sham, and a shameful one

at that? How could anyone not see the misery we have brought these people? I have never been so mortified in my entire life to be an American. These monsters in power have brought shame to my country and it will be played out for generations to come.

[Karenina]

5. Who on this board

imagines s/he would venture out in such conditions?

[youngdem]

7. Not ME....

I would have packed my family up a week ago and found a nice little "cave" to hide in.

Of course the media will declare this "election" a success. How could it be portrayed as anything but. We have the whole world watching us, waiting for yet another screw up on the part of "our" elected officials.

[leftchick]

8. I said earlier this week

I would prepare as if a hurricane was coming. Stock up on supplies, board up the windows and huddle on the floor until it is over.

[TheOnRecord]

15. I would,

no doubt.

[MisterP]

35. it's not just the conditions, it's that it's a PR farce with only one

possible outcome, regardless of what the voters pick: "Lawee," as Chimpus Maximus calls him

[Karenina]

36. Really.

Shades of Diebold.

[katinmn]

6. After the "elections" for the national assembly tomorrow

we need to start calling for the pull out. Sen Kennedy offered a rational plan. Let's get behind it. It won't happen over night but it has to be the goal.

[bluestateguy]

9. Most people won't vote

Gee, they're learning how to be an American style democracy faster than I thought.

[sweetbutterfly]

10. True

I think it's interesting that everyone's talking about who is not going to vote. We have horrific numbers going to the polls every year, and no one claims the election is a sham or a failure because of the routinely low turnout. And we don't have bombs to worry about (usually!)

[LisaL]

16. Well, sure, we have it easy. All we had to do is to wait for hours

in the rain during a work day.
I suspect when he is talking about low turnout, he is talking about really low turnout...
Certainly way less than 50 % of eligible voters.

[sweetbutterfly]

27. less than 50%

Which is usually how are election turnouts are!

[BR_Parkway]

11. And they bury the "won't vote because of boycott" underneath

"wont vote because of security concerns" - Why didn't they do a paper mail in ballot like Oregon does? Would have been so much safer, so many more people would have participated....

Oh, wait, then their hand picked folks wouldn't have gotten elected.

[Igel]

12. Sunni Kurds and most Shi'a say there'll be decent turnout.

Nearly every Sunni Arab says there'll be crappy turnout.

The behavior patterns neatly when you draw certain distinctions. Each in his own little world.

[leftchick]

13. Some Shiite factions won't be voting either...

Here is the most recent one...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Igel]

32. Hence "most Shi'a". n/t

[LynnTheDem]

34. Not true

There are millions of Shia boycotting.

US State Media just doen't like to bother American beautiful minds with facts.

[oneighty]

14. "Historic election"

Why is this an historic election. Is it a talking/selling point?

First election in fifty years? I thought Saddam had an election just a few years back and garnered ninety per cent of the vote. Fixed election, people had not real choice it is said. Is this fake election any different?

180

[sherilocks]

17. So why aren't the ex-pat Iraqis voting?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/2005...

<snip>

Only 280,000 were registered to vote, although organisers had hoped for a million in 14 countries where Iraqis had a chance to cast ballots ahead of polling day on Sunday in Iraq (news - web sites) itself for the 275-member Transitional National Assembly.

<snip>

A total of 84,429 voters cast their ballot on the first day, 29.8 percent of all registered to vote, it said at its Geneva headquarters.

But this registered total was about only a quarter of the number of Iraqis of voting age estimated to be living outside their homeland.

<snip>

In the United States Friday the turnout was 21.7 percent.
Some 240,000 Iraqis were eligible to vote in the US. Polling stations were reopening Saturday in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville and Washington.


<snip>

What security fears do the ex-pat Iraqis have?

[Rose Siding]

25. There's only one polling place west of the Mississippi

...the agency in charge of the expatriate vote, the Office of International Migration, is operating only one polling place west of the Mississippi River, making voting unrealistic for thousands of Iraqi Americans who live too far away.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/12162547p-...

I haven't heard anything about absentee voting either. Maybe some kind of system needs to exist already before that's feasible?

[TexasLawyer]

18. Many Iraqis have "no idea that elections are to be held in that country"

Here's a non-"Hallmark card" perspective on the upcoming Iraq elections. Really interesting...

From Al Ahram (Egypt)

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/726/re5.htm

The battle of posters
In Baghdad, Nermeen Al-Mufti asks Iraqis what they make of the forthcoming polls

<snip>

Violence continues to be the order of the day as the countdown to the polls began, observers anticipate that the lethality of the attacks is likely to reach its peak on elections day. Despite the worsening security situation, some Iraqi voters insist that they will turn up on the day.

While Al-Maliki is well aware of the risks which entails the voting process, he, nonetheless, is determined to cast his vote. "It's a question of luck. A small group of them can't target all the voting stations. I'm going because Al-Sayid Al-Sistani said that whoever doesn't vote is going to hell. If the station I'm voting at is attacked then, God willing, I'll die a martyr," Al-Maliki said.

Others, however, decided to be among Iraq's non-voters. "I have heard of Pachachi but I don't know the other names on his list," Adnan Omar, a university student said. Most of them, he continued, "have come from abroad and we don't know anything about them. So why should I give my life for someone I don't know, when I know that things are only going to get worse after the elections," Omar added. But some Iraqis expressed their frustration with the lack of any educational material on the elections.

A poll conducted by Al-Mada newspaper and published on Sunday revealed some shocking results when it polled a sample of 300 Iraqis in Al-Sadr City only to discover that almost 100 per cent of those polled had no idea that elections were to be held in the country. The percentage is the highest among the women.

But Al-Sadr, a poverty-stricken suburb has many likes in other parts of Iraq. "The electoral commission, says one Iraqi teacher, didn't explain why are we having elections now, it just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on posters and television adverts that said things like 'vote for Iraq'. So if ignorance of the political process is going to keep some from voting, security is the main reason why the majority of Iraqis are unlikely to turn up for the vote."

<snip>

[TexasLawyer]

20. Mid-East Papers Scorn Iraqi Vote

From Turkish Weekly

http://www.turkishweekly.net/hisar/news.php?id=3026
Mid-East Papers Scorn Iraq Poll

Reports and editorials in Middle East newspapers show widespread gloom peppered with stark warnings on the eve of Iraq's landmark election.

Some papers depict a "path of fire" or speak of booby-traps and political minefields ready to explode in voters' faces.

But there's a flicker of hope amid the uncertainty, especially in Iraqi Kurdish and Iranian pro-Shia newspapers.


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President Bush said the Iraqi elections will be a historic event and praised the brave Iraqis, who will go to the ballot boxes tomorrow. Bush's words do not reflect Iraq's reality, but rather his obstinacy and attempt to conceal the failure of his plan in Iraq. Iraqis want democracy by all means. However, to talk about democracy in the light of bloody chaos is a complete fraud.

Pan-Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi editorial


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Iraq is a blazing path of fire, which the Americans entered by force... not knowing the issue was far more complicated than they thought.

Saudi Al-Jazirah editorial


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Today Iraq is a big field of land mines and no one knows where, when, or how they will explode. The land mines will not be removed by a magic election touch, as long as Iraq's major problems remain. We wish Iraq could be free, independent and free from foreign troops.

UAE's Al-Bayan editorial


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One wonders if Iraqi officials, who are backing these elections, realise the danger of what could happen to their country before the hatchet falls on their heads. Those officials should work towards ending this farce called "elections", unite their stance through dialogue and reconciliation, and safeguard Iraq and its people!

Jordan's Al-Dustur commentary


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Tomorrow the whole world will be focusing on Iraq, where general elections on which Iraq's future will be based through the coming years will be held.

Egypt's Al-Ahram editorial


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The polling stations, several tens of which have been destroyed by the guerrilla movement in recent days, could turn into tombs for a number of voters... Yielding to pressure from the Bush administration, Baghdad's provisional government is exposing its citizens' lives to a real danger by appealing to them to turn out to vote... Faced with the complicit silence of the international community, and with the help of Iyad Allawi's government, Iraqis are going to serve as cannon fodder. All of the guerrilla movement's factions, among them Zarqawi's group, Ansar al-Sunnah and the Iraqi Islamic Army, are determined to sow death tomorrow. But what is the life of one Iraqi worth in the eyes of the Baghdad government and the international community?

Algeria's Liberte


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I am not happy with the Kurdish administration but I will vote for it. I know that it is not what I have been dreaming about for many long years but I will still cast my vote. I have full belief that the independence I dream about is far greater that what these parties can least of all about, but I will cast my vote. I know that the Kurdish authority is riddled with administrative corruption and that job allocations are based on political allegiances and nepotism, but I will cast my vote... I have no doubt that after 30 January there won't be a sudden change of face or mentality of politicians particularly among the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, but I will cast my vote... With many misgivings, I will cast my vote in Iraq for the Kurdistani list.

Asos Hardi, writing in Iraqi Kurdish independent weekly Hawlati

<snip>

[pdxmom]

19. And now they're saying that the mere fact

that there is an election proves that democracy has won. Can't make expectations any lower than that. How do people buy this drivel? Hold an election, no one comes, but democracy is a resounding success? Someone needs to actually look up the definition of democracy.

[Dark]

21. Notice that they are trying to say that the people who don't go aren't

boycotting the election, they're just afraid. And what happened to the 42% of the population that doesn't live in Coalition controlled districts.

[leesa]

22. Well who would risk being shot for a vote that won't count anyway.

America has already chosen its puppet, why bother?

[RockStar]

23. Duhhhh...Does anyone really think this is about what the Iraq people want?

[MrPrax]

26. A worrisome talking point I read...

as well as heard by a rightwing radio host up here in Canada is that anyone with half-a-brain knows it's a failure (never meant to succeed anyhow)

Is that the ulitmate failure for blame can be placed, not on the Iraqis--they're trying their best, they're victims afterall--but the the real blame is Liberals, the EU, the UN and America Haters, who like the terrorists, want this to fail because they don't want change in the ME. In fact liberals are racists because they don't want Arabs to have the joys and benefits of 'freedom' and 'liberty'.

This wratchets up the stakes in that since 'liberals/terrorists/foreigners' hate democracy and will undermine it for purely ideological reasons and pure hatred, it makes any election fraud acceptable and decisive action by leaders all the more necessary...

Oldie, but a Goodie

[leftchick]

28. UPDATE!! Iraqi president makes about turn... link

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/245F9928-095B-4B...


Iraq's president has reversed earlier comments and now says that he expects two thirds of Iraqis to vote in Sunday's election.

"I expect a majority, up to two-thirds of eligible Iraqis to vote," President Ghazi al-Yawar said on Saturday.

But his comments came only hours after he said violence would deter the majority of Iraqis from voting.

"What we hope is that most Iraqis will take part in the election, but we know that the majority will not because of the security situation," Yawar said earlier.

"The majority will decide not to take part, not because they are boycotting the election, but because of the security situation," he added.


...

[cliss]

30. I was going to comment on that very thing....

but I was reading my way down the thread, and you answered my comment.

I was going to write: "You can tell who has not talked with Bush recently. Iraqi President Ghazi-al-Yawar predicts that most Iraqis will not vote in the upcoming election". Bush, in his desperate frenzy, will not allow anyone to even whisper a hint of less than 100% turnout.

Sure enough, by the time I got to the end of the thread, Mr. Yawar changed his mind. Now, he claims that 2/3 of all Iraqis will vote tomorrow.

Shakespeare......shades of Shakespeare.....or maybe it's Mozart comedy, or maybe I Love Lucy.

[Barrett808]

31. Yes, I expect the Bush PR detail men got to him... n/t

[sunnystarr]

37. Wouldn't surprise me if they already have film footage of

thousands of voters voting with smiles on their faces. I expect to see the film repeated at least 4 or more times an hour along with the claim that 2/3 of Iraq cast their ballots.

I also expect it to be as real as the bin Laden pre-election footage.

[katinmn]

39. Funny that. I've been hearing 20 percent for the last several days.

[NYC]

40. Did Bush make another 5 minute phone call?

[VegasWolf]

29. Fox News is going on non-stop about how important this election

is. No dissenting opinions Allawied!

[sarcasmo]

33. Chimpy will still declare victory for freedom, LMFAO.

[Fleshdancer]

41. I wouldn't risk my life to vote for unknown candidates

but that's just me.

[w4rma]

43. …