Iraq, at 'Historic Juncture,' Set to Vote

AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/11/05 | Bassem Mroue - ap

[NormsRevenge]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Voting begins Monday in hospitals, military camps and even prisons across Iraq, launching the process to choose a new parliament that the United States hopes can help quell the insurgency so U.S. forces can begin heading home.

Iraq's government announced it will close its borders, extend the nighttime curfew and restrict domestic travel starting Tuesday — two days before the main election day — to prevent insurgents from disrupting the vote.

"We are very prepared for the elections, and we are highly determined," Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said. "We hope that everyone participates and that it will be a safe day. ... We are at a historic juncture."

Voters will be choosing their first fully constitutional parliament since the 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein. The 275-member assembly, which will serve for four years, will then choose a new government that U.S. officials hope can win the confidence of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority — the foundation of the insurgency.

In a statement Sunday, Iraq's election commission said it was investigating a fivefold increase in the number of new voters in Kirkuk "that is difficult to explain." Kurds want to incorporate the oil-rich northern city into their self-ruled region, an idea strongly rejected by the two other ethnic groups in the city, the Arabs and the Turkomen.

Although most of the 15 million eligible voters will cast ballots Thursday, soldiers, police, hospital patients and prisoners not yet convicted of crimes can vote Monday.

Officials said Saddam — who is jailed and facing trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites in 1982 — has the right to vote but it was not known whether he would.

Suspected insurgents held in U.S. or Iraqi detention but who have not been convicted of an offense would also be eligible, Iraqi officials said.

On Tuesday, the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi voters living outside the country can begin casting their ballots over a two-day period at polling centers in 15 countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

Voters must produce a passport, certificate of citizenship or military service papers and dip an index finger in indelible purple ink to prevent them from voting more than once.

With security so tenuous, campaigns have been waged primarily through media advertisements, colorful banners and placards on the streets, and press conferences before audiences packed with supporters.

Most attention has focused on Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election to protest the continued U.S. military presence.

With most Sunni Arabs staying home, Shiites and Kurds won more than 220 of the 275 parliamentary seats — a move that sharpened communal tensions and fueled the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

This time, more Sunni Arab candidates are in the race, and changes in the election law to allocate most seats by province instead of based on a party's nationwide total all but guaranteed a sizable Sunni bloc in the next assembly.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad urged all Iraqis to vote, telling reporters Sunday in Sulaimaniyah: "We need a government that brings Iraqis together."

Turnout in January was about 58 percent but less than 5 percent in the predominantly Sunni province of Anbar, a hotbed of insurgency.

U.S. officials hope that a big Sunni turnout and a strong Sunni bloc in the new parliament will help curb the violence so the United States and its coalition partners can begin drawing down their forces in 2006.

An American soldier was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, the U.S. command said. That brought to at least 2,142 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

During an appearance Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," Khalilzad held out hope that the election would be a turning point, saying "conditions are moving in a direction that can allow a significant decrease in the size of the American forces starting next year."

Speaking via video link on Germany political talk show ARD, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Iraqis were determined to vote.

"The Iraqi people won't let themselves be frightened off by the threats of terrorists," Talabani said in comments dubbed into German.

Even with a big Sunni vote, Shiites are expected to win the biggest share of parliamentary seats. Shiites form an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people compared to 20 percent for the Sunni Arabs.

On Sunday, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a binding religious decree, or fatwa, instructing followers to vote for candidates "who can be trusted to protect their principles and safeguard their interests."

That appeared to be a veiled endorsement of the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Shiite religious parties that dominates the current government.

Al-Sistani also urged Shiites to avoid "splitting the vote and risking its waste" — an admonition apparently directed against former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite running on a ticket with several prominent Sunnis.

Some Sunni religious extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq, have warned Iraqis against voting. But most insurgent groups have avoided threats of violence that helped keep Sunni turnout low in January.

The hard-line Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, which was at the forefront of the January boycott call, has said voting was an individual choice.

Nevertheless, thousands of Iraqi forces will be mustered to protect polling stations, with U.S. and other coalition troops ready to help in the event of a major attack.

Separately, Iraqi and British officials said Sunday they had no word on the fate of four Christian peace activists, more than a day after the expiration of a deadline set by kidnappers to kill them if all prisoners weren't released.

[NormsRevenge]

Iraqi soldiers hold election campaign posters for the Iraqi National list carrying pictures of the head of the list, Shiite secular leader and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi while receiving released prisoners in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005. Voting begins Monday in hospitals, military camps and even prisons across Iraq, launching the process to choose a new parliament that the United States hopes can help quell the insurgency so U.S. forces can begin heading home. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

[NormsRevenge]

An Iraqi youth rides his bicycle by a poster showing radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, bottom left, and his late father former spiritual leader Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a powerful Shiite cleric, defied Saddam Hussein killed by suspected Saddam agents in a 1999, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005. A little more than a year ago, Muqtada al-Sadr was a fugitive from justice, his militiamen fighting U.S. troops and his movement shunned by the political establishment. Much has changed since. The 'Sadrists' are now a major political force, al-Sadr is a powerful leader and his candidates are expected to do well in parliamentary elections. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

[ohioWfan]

I love it when the MSM just can't avoid printing GOOD news about Iraq.

This whole election thing has got to kill them!

(But ain't it fun?!)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good stuff....

And the Demonic Rats know things are going well for a massive turnout...Iraqi insurgents urge Sunnis to vote, warn Zarqawi

and from the Washington Post on Thursday:

In Iraq, Signs of Political Evolution

which contains this little piece of info:

************************

"It is like night and day from 10 months ago in terms of level of participation and political awareness," said a Canadian election specialist with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a group affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party that is working to ease Iraq's transition to democracy. The institute, which has provided free campaign training to more than 100 Iraqi parties and describes its programs as nonpartisan, granted a reporter access to its employees and training sessions on the condition that no one on its staff be named.

*************************************

So surely the Democratic leaders have an inkling that momentous things are about to happen in IRAQ......

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See the tidbit from the Washington Post at #4!

[SaxxonWoods]

Yes, saw that article at Reuters also. Thursday is going to be huge. If Zarqawi stay quiet, he loses. If he attacks, he loses even more. I predict he will "redeploy" to Afghanistan soon. This is the tipping point.

Get out the candies, and practice your Arabic style dance steps.

[TomasUSMC]

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi WOULD be a great improvement over the present Iraqi PM Jaafari who supports Sharia Law and ran ops for DAWA - a terrorist organization that bombed our embassy.

[roses of sharon]

Yes they do know, which is why they spent the last 3wks trashing the President, our soldiers, and the Iraq effort.

This way the public will have a "so what, we are losing, our guys are hated, and died for nothing", attitude.

The Dems/MSM are good at what they do.

[cookcounty]

Do not forget to paint your index finger purple this week!!!

[Marine_Uncle]

" So surely the Democratic leaders have an inkling that momentous things are about to happen in IRAQ......"
Yes Ernest. But more then equally important, the Iraqi people feel it. It is like nothing they ever have had. The freedom to vote. They can tell their party hack one thing and go to the voting poll and cast their ballad for whom they think really is the best bet. A taste of freedom our men and women of all the coalition forces have brought to them on a plate. So many Iraqi people want our troops out of Iraq at this point not that they hate them but they just want their own army and police to protect them.
The Butcher is on trial and will be eventually hanged. They have been given something they are starting to realize is more preciouse then their feelings about their religion. The freedom to be able to go to the polls and vote, with the inner hopes that the govenrment is going to bring their country back from total ruin and improve their lives and make them amoung the most powerfull and rich countries in the ME. I am convince many more of them are thinking along these lines then we give them credit for.
George Bush has given them a chance millions of them never could dream of because it was impossible, not in their make up and lives. Now this new thingy is slowly sinking in. Surely they are realizing they now have something no other country under Muslim has, regardless of the somewhat benevalant characteristics of a few ME monarchs/presidents.
From where they have come for so long, surely just being able to participate in this new process, must be very uplifting to them. They actually have freedom within the law to have a say in their countries affairs.
GWB is so terse in his speaches. But the essence of what he has tried to communicate to the world for the past three years is so fundelmental in nature. I sincerly believe millions of peoples in democratic lands simply have missed the point he has over and over said. Freedom is a gift from God given to every person. And now they are getting a chance to experience it, without going to the wood chippers.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

So true!

And now there is a poll:

ABC and TIME Bury Their Own Poll With Great News From Iraq!!!

[Marine_Uncle]

" And now there is a poll:"
Thanks. And with that one. Think I will call it a morning. Things will not be able to be concelled much longer. The L/MSM are major news feeds. They will not be able to hide the good news as more secondaries start advertising stuff the masses have not had access to. Meanwhile, Abu's eyes must be rolling around in his sick head like a pinball machine. Should I escape while my hide is intaked. Where is my Caliph state going to go at this point. Damn the Baathist have turned their backs on me and no longer will support foreign fighters, are they going to turn us all in over the next few months. Abu is up shits creek without a paddle at this point. Gotta hit the sack, eyeballs are starting to sag. nighty night.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Goodnite friend....my eyeballs are saying enough also....

Next week is gonna be real interesting!

[NormsRevenge]

Here's to a relatively quiet election.

A US soldier patrols at sunset a neighborhood in the outskirts of the Iraqi northern city of Kirkuk. Iraq unveiled strict security measures to keep attacks at bay during the general election this week but deadly political violence continued to blight the country.(AFP/Filippo Monteforte)

[NormsRevenge]

Election posters of different election candidates are seen plastered on the arches of 14th Ramadan in Baghdad. Iraq unveiled strict security measures to keep attacks at bay during the general election this week but deadly political violence continued to blight the country.(AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now that is a good looking sight!

[Coop]

Nice photo. Praying for a large turnout, little violence, and for the safety of our troops.