Competitive Intelligence

Getting Out the Vote: Election Day in Iraq

The votes are in and indigo-stained fingers are held high with pride as a badge of courage as Iraqis take back their nation - the WP distills a welcome moral to the story:

... Americans finally got a good look at who they are fighting for: millions of average people who have suffered for years under dictatorship and who now desperately want to live in a free and peaceful country. Their votes were an act of courage and faith—and an answer to the question of whether the mission in Iraq remains a just cause.

Fred Kaplan in Slate.com details the defeat the election handed to insurgents, particularly Zarqawi:

And yet, is it too romantic to see signs of real hope in today's election? One thing is clear: The day marked a terrible defeat for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who had declared democracy to be an "infidel" belief. He and his goons passed out leaflets threatening to kill anyone and everyone who dared to vote; they dramatized their threat by killing dozens of police and poll workers in the days leading up to the election. And yet millions of Iraqis—including a fairly large number of Sunnis who live in Shiite areas—defied their fears and voted. Whatever mayhem they inflict in the coming days, it will be hard for anyone to interpret their actions as reflecting the beliefs of "the street."

In the week before the election, several Sunni leaders said they want to participate in the constitutional process in any case. Do these leaders now regret their calls for a boycott of the election? Seeing how badly Zarqawi failed in his effort to halt or disrupt the election, will they now work more vigilantly to pursue their cause peacefully and to separate their nationalist followers from the foreign terrorists in their midst?

Finally, imagine a Syrian watching Al-Arabiya, seeing Iraqi-born Syrians going to special polling places to elect Iraqi leaders, observing that no Syrians of any sort have the right to elect the leaders of Syria—and perhaps asking himself, "Why?" It is not inconceivable that this flicker of democratic practice in Iraq could ignite a flame of some sort across the Middle East. To what end, and for ultimate good or ill, who knows. But something happened in Iraq today, something not only dramatic and stirring but perhaps also very big.

Election Day in Iraq, where the turnout was unexpectedly high and the mood jubilant. As many as 8 million people, or almost 60 percent of eligible voters, cast ballots, sometimes within earshot of insurgents' repeated mortar, rocket, machine gun, and suicide attacks, which proved less deadly than feared but still killed 44. "The election was a victory of our own making," Iraq's national security chief told the New York Times. "Today, the Iraqi people voted with their own blood."

Or, put another way: "It's like a wedding. I swear to God, it's a wedding for all of Iraq," the director of a polling station in a Sunni area of Baghdad told the Washington Post. "No one has ever witnessed this before. For a half-century, no one has seen anything like it. And we did it ourselves."

Even AlterNet had a few nice things to say:

Despite the violence, voters streamed to the polls in relatively small but consistent numbers throughout the day, with a turnout of up to 90 percent in some Shiite neighborhoods, and about 40-50 percent in some Sunni areas in western Baghdad, Milley said. U.S. forces made up a third cordon during the election, giving logistical and protective support, while polling stations were guarded by Iraqi police forces and managed by Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission.

As predicted, Shiite turnout was much higher than for the minority Sunni population, as Shiites make up nearly 60 percent of the country's 26 million people. They were expected to gain a significant powerbase in this vote for a 275-member National Assembly. Sunnis make up 20 percent of Iraq's population and had been told by some of their leaders not to vote. Both the Iraq Islamic Party and the Association of Muslim Scholars threatened to boycott the election, claiming it could not be legitimate and remains a tactic to extend the U.S. occupation.

But many Sunnis disregarded the “fatwa,” or edict, seeing a vote as the only clear way out of the past.

"My father was a general in the Iraqi Army and this is the first time for Iraqis to taste freedom," said 25-year-old Dr. Zeena Hassam, who helped her 80-year-old father drop his ballot into the voting box. Hassem said she and her father paid no attention to calls for a boycott. The day is too important and the waiting was too long, she said. "It is the duty of every Iraqi to vote. We are Sunni, and my relatives and my friends, we all know it is our duty, and it is our honor."

The Sunni boycott, and especially the threats and terrorism, may have frightened off some voters, but others weren't fazed.

Aerial imagery apparently caught voters spitting on and kicking the remains of a suicide bomber as they entered their polling station. Other Iraqis waiting in line in Sadr City came under a mortar attack that hit a man in his leg. They helped the injured man then got back in line to vote, election officials reported.

"Of course we are afraid, but we must do this,” said Suna Sharif as she left a voting station with her son and husband. “We walked for two miles and my husband is sick. We have been preparing to vote for a long time and my son made sure we were here before polls closed.”

A ban on all car traffic encouraged people in some Shiite neighborhoods in northwest Baghdad to pour into the streets to visit and celebrate. Children played soccer and men talked on door stoops.

By nightfall, reports of ongoing attacks were still pouring into the central command station of western Baghdad. Focus was turned to protecting ballots and the days ahead, and helping police forces who were to continue securing polling sites through the night. The police chief took a moment from his organizing to show off his stained finger. An officer with the Iraqi National Guard joined him, holding his blue index finger in the air. They all took photos to remember the moment.

Now, let's hope the retaliation sure to come against Sunnis to get them to back away from negotiations after the votes are counted can be met with equal resistance by the Iraqi people - we'll find out in a couple of weeks what sort of ruling coalition comes to power.

- Arik

Posted by Arik Johnson at January 30, 2005 04:11 PM