Be Careful What You Wish For....

[wadestock]

Shiites Show Strong Lead in Iraq Returns
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050204/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_050204165403

Sorry if repeat, didn't turn up on my search.

"BAGHDAD, Iraq - A new, partial tally of votes Friday from Iraq (news - web sites)'s landmark elections showed a Shiite coalition whose leaders have close ties to Iran rolling up a strong lead over other tickets, including that of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

The United Iraqi Alliance, which has the endorsement of Iraq's top Shiite clerics, won more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted so far, the election commission said. Allawi's ticket was running second with more than 579,700 votes."


Also very troubling this morning on C-SPAN...further talk about the correlation between food and voting. As William Pitt has already blogged:

"The American media is painting these newly-minted Iraqi voters as flush with the thrill of casting a ballot. In truth, however, some other more pressing motivations lay behind their rush to the polling places. Dahr Jamail, writing for Inter Press Service, reported that "Many Iraqis had expressed fears before the election that their monthly food rations would be cut if they did not vote. They said they had to sign voter registration forms in order to pick up their food supplies. Just days before the election, 52 year-old Amin Hajar, who owns an auto garage in central Baghdad, had said, 'I'll vote because I can't afford to have my food ration cut. If that happened, me and my family would starve to death.'"

I can't remember the guy's name, but he said essentially, the food dolling places were simply co-located with many of the voting places.