Iraqi Election~~~~~ Live thread.

All of us | Jan 29 2005 | Various Freepers

[Dog]

It is now 3 am in Iraq the polls will be opening in the next few hours as the world watches and hold's it breath. Iraq is about to undertake a historic vote.

Lets wish them well....... please post all comments and election photos to this thread.

[SlowBoat407]

They have two ballots to vote on. One for national assembly and one for some other kind of local assembly.

Democracy - some assembly required...

[Allegra]

C'mon Iraqis, what are you waiting for? Vote early, vote often!!

Iraqis are not early risers. They tend to get going around nine, ten in the morning.

Even the terrorists rarely pull stuff early in the morning.

[A Citizen Reporter]

It's reported by the AP. Take it with a shaker of salt.

[not2worry]

I agree. The vote right now in Iraq affects us as well as Iraq.

This is not a game. It is a historic day in the world and I don't feel this is an appropriate forum for using the election as a stand-up comedy bit!

IMHO....shame on any FReeper that doesn't understand the consequences of this election!

If you want a comedy thread on the Iraq Election start one, but don't humiliate our Troops and the Iraqi people with your tasteless jokes.

[NorCalRepub]

haha......and they basically had to sink the Yorky twice since they put out the fires so fast from the first raid that the Japs thought they were bombing another carrier......the Media would have been dumbfounded

[BCrago66]

So far these Iraqi poll workers look like people manning the hotel registration table in a conference where no one shows up. Let's hope there's a Iraqi big Sunday breakfast tradition that I don't know about.

[maica]

Looks like a pretty good tagline! -------


Boxer, Kennedy, Kerrey, Biden, just of few of the members of the Baathist wing of the Democrat party.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I had Raisin Bran for breakfast today. LOL

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

Who's John Kerry?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just be patient, it does it all the time, I think the system waits for a buffer to get filled before it writes it back , or a certain amount of time before it writes the buffer back, helps performance by reducing the traffic on the disk drives....standard trick.

[TexKat]

An Iraq man casts his vote in a polling station in Melbourne as Iraqi exiles in Australia become the first to vote in this weekend's historic Iraq elections.(AFP/Willaim West)

Almost 8,000 Iraqi exiles vote in Australia

SYDNEY (AFP) - Almost 8,000 Iraqi exiles, two thirds of those registered in Australia to vote in Iraq's first democratic elections for half a century, had cast their ballots, organisers said here.

By the end of voting on Saturday some 7,700 of the 11,800 who registered had voted, and people were still trickling early Sunday into the nine polling stations in Sydney, Melbourne and in the Victoria state regional centre of Shepparton.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which organised the out-of-country voting program, has estimated that around 40,000 Iraqis resident in Australia were eligible to vote in the historic poll.

But almost three quarters had failed to register, citing in some cases fears for their families in Iraq, concerns about their residential status in Australia or lack of information about who they would be voting for.

"Some have lived in Australia for many years, two decades in some cases, and there was an element of disconnection to the election in Iraq, or scepticism about it," a spokeswoman for the IOM said Sunday.

But she said organisers were pleased with the turn out so far and were anticipating many more would vote before the close of polling at 5:00 pm (0600 GMT).

"They have turned out in their thousands in the first two days, many expressing euphoria and jubilation at voting for the first time in their lives," she said.

Expatriate Iraqis have travelled from all over Australia and New Zealand to cast their votes at the nine polling stations.

Iraqi exile Jasmiyeh Al-Othaman Tamimi, right, casts her vote in the Iraqi election with the help of an election official in Sydney, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005, just hours before people in her homeland of Iraq go to the polls. Many of Australia's estimated 80,000 Iraqis declined to register for the election, fearing that their votes would make relatives in Iraq terrorist targets. (AP Photo/Dan Peled)

[HairOfTheDog]

I sure hope it picks up....

[saquin]

OMG, CNN just showed the drone video and made no mention of the bad guys being followed and caught. Anderson Cooper said "the Defense Dept. has released a video showing the rocket attack on the U.S. embassy that killed 2 Americans", blah, blah. All gloom and doom about the attack and the violence. No, I repeat NO, mention of the bad guys caught on film and captured.

Blech. Why did I even turn on CNN.

[Southack]

"Three boxes: Soap, Ballot, Munition. :D"

Four boxes:

1. Soap box,
2. Ballot box,
3. Jury box, and
4. Cartridge box.

That's what it takes to preserve freedom.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Iraqis are not early risers

This is true. Even during the war when our tanks rolled into Baghdad in the morning, traffic was light.

[Floratina]

I have one for Ted hic Kennedy! Bet he is sitting at home, in the dark (secretly watching FNC), drinks in hands, and rocking back and forth!

Actually, that sounds kind of fun.

[mdittmar]

Relax, it's 7:30 there.Are the polls open yet.

[mainepatsfan]

They would have focused on the loss of the couple of Aleutian islands.

[Allegra]

I sure hope it picks up....

It will. I imagine around mid-morning it'll get going real strong.

Baghdad is always very quiet this time of day. They're not stirring around much yet.

[CAluvdubya]

Even the terrorists rarely pull stuff early in the morning.

Knowing that I think I'd make sure I got up early to vote and maybe out smart the terrorists. :)

Stay safe over there, prayers are with you.