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| Half of Iraq's voters said likely to participate in Jan. 30 elections | |||
| 2005-01-14 | |||
| BAGHDAD, Iraq - About half of Iraq's 15 million voters are likely to participate in this month's election, a senior election official said in one of the first such estimates of possible turnout. To encourage as much participation as possible, Iraqis living in dangerous areas will be allowed to vote in safer areas, the official said. Farid Ayar of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said he expected seven to eight million Iraqis to vote on Jan. 30. "That won't be bad. It will be OK for Iraq at the moment," he said Thursday outside his office in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone, home of the US Embassy and Iraqi government offices. "There are some elections in Europe that attract a 40 percent turnout. We are not better than Europe," he said.
In all, there are 14 million eligible voters inside Iraq, he said, plus another 1.2 million abroad, who will be allowed to vote in 14 countries, including the United States, Britain, Iran and Syria. Such flexibility reflects Iraqi authorities' belief that a high level of participation is important for the election to seem credible. The roughly 50 percent turnout forecast by Ayar would be respectable given the tenuous security in Baghdad, home to nearly a quarter of Iraq's estimated 25-26 million people, and the fierce insurgency in a large swathe of land to the capital's north and west. Insurgents have killed several electoral officials in recent weeks - some in broad daylight in the heart of Baghdad. Others have quit their jobs out of fear for their lives. "Like in any other Third World country, there will be violence and intimidation. It will not be a quiet election," Ayar said. The Jan. 30 election will signal the emergence of Iraq's majority Shiites as the dominant group in racially and religiously diverse Iraq, ending decades of oppression by the Sunni Arab minority. So, while the Shiites are embracing the vote, the Sunni Arabs want it postponed, arguing that it is too dangerous for Iraqis to vote.
The question of security remains the toughest for organizers. On Thursday, European lawmakers said Iraq's deteriorating security situation will keep the European Parliament from sending observers to monitor the election.
Shiite areas in central and southern Iraq have been spared much of the violence that has hit other parts of the country. But the Danish Army said Thursday that the southern city of Basra, where Shiites are a majority, has grown tenser. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in Basra, while a third one detonated a bomb Tuesday, said the report by the Danish commander in the area, Col. John Dalby. On Thursday, another senior US military officer - 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. John Batiste - said he expected insurgents to continue attacking US and Iraqi forces in the run-up to the vote in areas under his responsibility. But said he was confident that voting will take place in his area, including such trouble hotspots as Samarra and Baqouba. "They will go after the Iraqi security forces when they can find them in small numbers," he said of the insurgents. "They will attack us from a distance." | |||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Half of eligible would do nicely. A good start. Lessee, KhaleejTimes, published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates... And what, pray tell, could these people possibly know about voting and elections and democracy and such? Other than at second or third hand, like so many who pontificate for their own enjoyment. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-14 12:34:50 PM |