The Iraq vote

[Flatrater]

I'm surpised that we haven't had a topic on this in the 2 weeks since the elections were held. So here goes.

Iraq had a 60% voter turnout which is pretty good under the conditions that they had to put up with.



Shiite list wins Iraq elections

[justify]The list of candidates representing Iraq's majority Shiites won the most votes in the nation's Jan. 30 election, followed by the Kurds and then interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list, Iraqi election officials said Sunday. [/justify][justify]
The Shiite-dominated list - United Iraqi Alliance backed by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani - received 4.075 million votes, say 48% of the vote. A Kurdish alliance was second with 2.175 million votes and Allawi's list was third with 1.168 million, say 13.8% of the vote. [/justify][justify]
Of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters, 8,456,266 cast ballots, the commission said, according to The AP. That represents a turnout of less than 60 percent. [/justify][justify]
Election officials said just 3,775 valid votes were cast in the Sunni province of Anbar. [/justify][justify]
About 1.75 million votes were cast in the Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq. Iraqis living in those areas also elected a new regional parliament. [/justify][justify]
The results released Sunday will not be certified for three days, officials said. "This is a new birth for Iraq," commission spokesman Farid Ayar said.[/justify]

[taranaki]

........So out of about 14 million people elligible to vote, about 4 million voted for the guys that will run the country?And 10 million didn't.......

and the Sunni people from theprovince of Anbar have so much faith in the system imposed on them that less than 4,000 even bothered to vote?

Don't hurry to organise the transport convoys home,guys.This is 'democracy' in the slimmest sense of the word. Interesting too, to see that Bush's stooges from the interim 'government' did so badly. 13 out of 14 eligible voters chose not to vote for them.What a surprise.

[Flatrater]

Naki aren't you one of the people preaching about how bad a 2 party system is? Here in Iraq they have at least 100 parties. For one party to get more than 50% of the vote is impossible.


The interim government has the smallest population and they would have the least amount of voters. This government is goign to have to form an alliance with the other parties to get more than 50% support behind any proposal brought before the new government.

Could the 4000 people from Anbar be the only ones who weren't scared of the death threat they recieved if the voted?

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by Flatrater

Could the 4000 people from Anbar be the only ones who weren't scared of the death threat they recieved if the voted?

Could it be that the balance of them would have voted for Sunni candidates if they thougfht they had a hope in hell of getting any representation?

The Sunnis have been effectively ejected from power by foreign invasion and prevented from retaining any representation by the fickle nature of a flawed democratic system.They aren't likely to take such a slur lightly.Expect them to turn up at the new parliament with car bombs and RPG's.

[DGB454]

Keep in mind that the Iraqi people were being threatened by "their own people" or as some like to call them "insurgents" if they voted. This was much worse in the Sunni areas yet people got out and voted. What does that say for them?
They are the real heroes in this whole ordeal. They are tired of the war and are wanting to move on and move forward with a voice in the way things are run. They are tired of being scared of the very people (insurgents) that pretend to be fighting for their freedom. If these "insurgents" thought for a minute that the people backed them then their would be no need for them to use threats of violence against them. Unfortunatly for the Sunni areas the threat was greater and they didn't get the turnout they needed to put their people of choice in the upcomming ruling cabinet. Fortunatly for the Sunni areas it appears that the rest of Iraq may be reaching out their collective hands to bring them in. This was a major blow to the so called freedom fighters/insurgents. The people don't want them their. Granted the people also don't want the allied forces their either and hopefully soon that to can be accomplished as Iraqis begin to work together and hopefully grow into an independant democratic free standing self governing nation.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by DGB454

Keep in mind that the Iraqi people were being threatened by "their own people" or as som like to call them "insurgents" if they voted. This was much worse in the Sunni areas yet people got out and voted. What does that say for them?
They are the real heroes in this whole ordeal. They are tired of the war and are wanting to move on move forward with a voice in the way things are run. They are tired of being scared of the very people (insurgents) that pretend to be fighting for their freedom. If these "insurgents" thought for a minute that the people backed them then their would be no need for them to use threats of violence against them. Unfortunatly for the Sunni areas the threat was greater and they didn't get the turnout they needed to put their people of choice in the upcomming ruling cabinet. Fortunatly for the Sunni areas it appears that the rest of Iraq may be reaching out their collective hands to bring them in. This was a major blow to the so called freedom fighters/insurgents. The people don't want them their. Granted the people also don't want the allied forces their either and hopefully soon that to can be accomplished as Iraqis begin to work together and hopefully grow into an independant democratic free standing self governing nation.

That's your opinion....Curiously enough it matches up to all the excuses that your government is making.

[DGB454]

Originally Posted by taranaki

That's your opinion....Curiously enough it matches up to all the excuses that your government is making.

Really? Which part?

The part where the Iraqi people voted in spite of the threats on their life?
The part where I said they were heroes?
The part where I said they were tired of being afraid of these so called freedom fighters?
The part where I said that the Sunni areas were were threatened more than other areas?
The part where I said if insurgents thought for a minute that the people backed them then their would be no need for them to use threats of violence against them?
The part where I said fortunatly for the Sunni areas it appears that the rest of Iraq may be reaching out their collective hands to bring them in?
The part where I said This was a major blow to the so called freedom fighters/insurgents?
Or finally the part where I said The people don't want them their. Granted the people also don't want the allied forces their either and hopefully soon that to can be accomplished as Iraqis begin to work together and hopefully grow into an independant democratic free standing self governing nation?

Which part looks like an "excuse" for something? What exactly is it I am making an excuse for?

[T4 Primera]

Originally Posted by Flatrater

...Shiite list wins Iraq elections

[justify]The list of candidates representing Iraq's majority Shiites won the most votes in the nation's Jan. 30 election, followed by the Kurds and then interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list, Iraqi election officials said Sunday. [/justify][justify]
The Shiite-dominated list - United Iraqi Alliance backed by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani - received 4.075 million votes, say 48% of the vote. A Kurdish alliance was second with 2.175 million votes and Allawi's list was third with 1.168 million, say 13.8% of the vote. [/justify][justify]
Of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters, 8,456,266 cast ballots, the commission said, according to The AP. That represents a turnout of less than 60 percent. [/justify][justify]
Election officials said just 3,775 valid votes were cast in the Sunni province of Anbar. [/justify][justify]
About 1.75 million votes were cast in the Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq. Iraqis living in those areas also elected a new regional parliament. [/justify][justify]
The results released Sunday will not be certified for three days, officials said. "This is a new birth for Iraq," commission spokesman Farid Ayar said.[/justify]

I'm ROTFLMAO that this report has the word "justify" sprinkled all through it.....poetic.....a Freudian slip of the keyboard even.

A more serious reply later.....

[YogsVR4]

I've been encouraged by the tone taken by the winners of the election. The people of Iraq were given an opportunity to select their leadership. That leadership will form the type of government that will represent its people. People may moan about the war itself, but that aside, its was a good first election.

[fredjacksonsan]

Considering the circumstances, close to 60% is pretty damn good. Isn't that a greater % than voted in the last US election?

You'll never get 100% of the people to vote in any society, unless they're forced. That's part of the choice they make. If you choose not to vote (for any reason and yes that includes death threats) then you can't really complain about the government.

I'm rooting for the Iraqis to have a democratic government so the US will leave, then install whatever they feel is best.

[T4 Primera]

Originally Posted by fredjacksonsan

Considering the circumstances, close to 60% is pretty damn good. Isn't that a greater % than voted in the last US election?

You'll never get 100% of the people to vote in any society, unless they're forced. That's part of the choice they make. If you choose not to vote (for any reason and yes that includes death threats) then you can't really complain about the government...

Want a better voter turn-out? Just follow the Iraqi model.

Vote for Food: Confession and More Links

If you think this was not a significant factor in the turn-out, then perhaps you can explain why the ex-pat Iraqi turnout was less than 10%, even with vastly better security conditions.

When the number of eligible voters inside Iraq is added to the number outside of Iraq - the turnout is less than 50%.

Less than 10% of Expat voters register

Anyway, contrary to what you might hear on Faux Meuws, there are irregularities.

Stuffed ballot boxes, tampering, disqualifications etc.

Originally Posted by fredjacksonsan

...I'm rooting for the Iraqis to have a democratic government so the US will leave, then install whatever they feel is best.

Me too. Although I'm still not convinced it should happen in that order.

What does seem likely is that the new government will be freindly with Iran and anti-Israel.

Iran freindly - Anti-Israel

[Flatrater]

Originally Posted by T4 Primera

If you think this was not a significant factor in the turn-out, then perhaps you can explain why the ex-pat Iraqi turnout was less than 10%, even with vastly better security conditions.

When the number of eligible voters inside Iraq is added to the number outside of Iraq - the turnout is less than 50%.

Less than 10% of Expat voters register

So tell me this! How many polling stations were set up in the US? Could it be the majority of people that could of voted didn't because of the travel time they needed? Could of been the money needed to get to a polling place for an election that didn't mean anything to them? There are reasons behind only 10% of expats voting.

You are tryting to make it sound like they didn't want to vote or that they didn't care to vote. You are twisting the facts to support your statements.

[T4 Primera]

Originally Posted by Flatrater

...You are twisting the facts to support your statements...

Actually, I am twisting my statements to support the facts

It is a valid point though, there wasn't time to organise for postal ballots. The distances required to travel are however offset by the difference in security (ease of travel) as well as the difference in motivation (no vote - no food).

There wasn't time for election campaigning or even raising money for election campaigning unless your were Allawi - in which case the NED funded you through the IRI and NDI. NED, NDI, IRI

...And lets not forget that the actual identities of the candidates was kept secret for security reasons (they tend to get assasinated). But they are not secret now.....

Other than that you could call it a resounding success

[mellowboy]

The vote turned out lower then 60 %. I think they said it was around 47%.

[YogsVR4]

Originally Posted by mellowboy

The vote turned out lower then 60 %. I think they said it was around 47%.

60%-75% http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...BE41ADE2C8.htm