Iraqis still in the dark over where to vote - or for whom

[kuozzman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1398689,00.html

With four days to go, the security crisis imposes an unusually secret ballot.

With four days to go before the election in Iraq, the vote looks unlike most other exercises in democracy. In an unusually secret ballot, Iraqis are going to the polls unaware of the identities of many of the people they will be voting for.

Although there are more than 7,700 candidates standing for seats in the new national assembly, hardly any of their names have been made public because of the security crisis that has enveloped the new Iraq.

Last week UN officials promised the names would be published in Iraqi newspapers before the vote, but that has yet to happen.

Some of the parties are using photographs on their posters of people who are not running. One poster shows the face of Abdul Karim Qasim, who became prime minister after a revolt against the monarchy in 1958 and was executed five years later. Another shows the face of Shaba'ad, one of the Sumerian queens of the ancient city of Ur. Many others show the face of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's leading Shia cleric, who is not only not standing for election but who also supposedly advocates the separation of religion and politics.

[Oreo]

1. What happens

when people win? How many won't fill their seat b/c they know they'll be assassinated? The layout of these elections is ridiculous... vote for 1 slate of a bunch of unknown people who will pick a commission who will pick the president? Like the outcome will actually reflect the votes!
Yeah... I'd risk my life to wait in line at the polls for that!

[NoPasaran]

2. It sounds like the surrealists are running this show n/t

[Beetwasher]

3. Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get More Surreally Deranged

They outdo themselves again...You can't write fiction this bizarre, no one would believe you...

[Streetdoc270]

4. let me get this straight

The Iraqi people are going to vote somewhere at sometime for someone.

Wow..... This is such a GREAT plan! How legimite can ANY government elected under these circumstances be?


Remind me how many people have died for this.....

[Jacobin]

8. Oh, and driving will be forbidden on election day

I shit you not.

I used to enjoy reading The Onion, but real news has surpassed it for irony.

[tanyev]

5. The ultimate secret ballot.

[Kber]

6. Remember when we "transferred power" early to fool the terrorists?

Can't you just see us doing that with the "vote"? "Hey - we held the election on the 30th to fool the bad guys. BTW - our puppet, uh, make that guy, won, and no, we don't have to prove it."

[RBHam]

7. This is becoming absolutely comical.

Didn't Stalin and Saddam have "elections" too?