|
Muslim Scholars just hates those Iraqi elections
 Iraq's influential Association of Muslim Scholars has told Aljazeera that the low turnout by Sunni Arabs in elections was due to a lack of real choice and military occupation.
| As anyone can see, the Kurds and Shiites and Chaldeans and Turkmen had lots of choices and are completely unoccupied... |
In an interview broadcast before polling stations closed on Sunday, Muhammad al-Kubaysi said low turnout in places such as Baghdad, Baquba and Samarra could have been prevented if there had been more time to create a genuine election.
"Yeah! You shoulda put the elections off for awhile."
"Like how long?"
"'Bout 30 years should do it..." |
"The voter goes to the polling stations not knowing who he is voting for in the first place. There are more than 7700 candidates, and I challenge any Iraqi voter to name more than half a dozen."
| There aren't quite that many parties, luckily, and they were voting by slate... |
He also criticised the huge number of groups on voting lists in which it was virtually impossible to know who was standing for election and what the candidate's background was.
| "Impossible. Simply impossible. Maybe Kurds and Shiites and Chaldeans and Turkmen could cope with it, but not Sunnis." |
The AMS spokesman added that it would be wrong for the US to assume that any new government could legitimise the continued US military presence in the region. "The elections are not a solution to the Iraqi problem, because this problem is not an internal dispute to be resolved through accords and elections. It lies in the presence of a foreign power that occupies this country and refuses even the mere scheduling of the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq", he said. Al-Kubaysi said AMS believed political consensus among Iraqi parties could only be reached once the foreign military presence left the country and all parties had to rely on debate rather than use of force.
"And what'll you do for a government until then?"
"The Association of Muslim Scholars could run things until then. Trust us..." |
"We have consistently argued that elections can only occur in a democracy that enjoys sovereignty. Our sovereignty is incomplete. Our sovereignty is usurped by foreign forces that have occupied our land and hurt our dignity." Asked whether the influential group was looking to upset a transition to democracy by rejecting elections, al-Kubaysi replied: "These elections ... are a means of establishing the foreign forces in Iraq and keeping Iraq under the yoke of occupation. They should have been postponed."
Posted by: Fred 2005-01-31 |
