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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraqis devise system to register voters |
| 2004-09-27 |
| With security a paramount concern for Iraq's January election, authorities have had to be creative in devising a way to register voters. They are using a Saddam Hussein-era database for food-rationing to create an initial voter roll, the top U.N. election expert in Iraq said. When household heads collect their 2005 ration cards from 548 distribution centers around the country in November, voter registration clerks will be waiting with fact sheets on each family, Carlos Valenzuela said Sunday. If there are errors, the voter role will be changed accordingly. The modified voter lists will then be exhibited publicly in mid-January. While less than ideal and not entirely risk-free, this method significantly reduces the danger of voter registration being disrupted by violence. It also provides a convincing cover for Iraqis who wish to vote but are afraid of being targeted by insurgents fighting to drive American and other foreign troops out of Iraq. ``Instead of having 9,000 voter registration centers opened throughout Iraq for eight or 10 weeks, you are talking about nearly 550 centers open for six weeks and not everyone has to go,'' Valenzuela said in an interview. The alternative method of registering voters also arose from the need to complete election preparations in a relatively short time. Already the tight January deadline threatens to keep 2 million to 4 million Iraqis living abroad from voting, the U.N. official said. The much bigger task, however, will be to provide security on election day, when about 13 million Iraqis will head to an estimated 20,000 polling stations to elect a 275-seat assembly. The assembly is to draft a permanent constitution for a nationwide referendum by next Oct. 15. If the constitution is adopted, a second general election will be held two months later and a democratic government would take control by Jan. 15, 2006. The January vote was agreed to earlier this year by the United States, the United Nations and Iraq's now defunct Governing Council after opposition by Iraq's top Shiite cleric forced Washington to drop a plan for a legislature selected from regional caucuses. That chamber was to have been formed by last July 1. Valenzuela said there have been no problems so far in recruiting electoral staff across Iraq. However a member of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq resigned in July after he received threats and has not been replaced. Iraq's food-ration system was created after the United Nations slapped sanctions on this Arab nation for invading Kuwait in 1990. The Ministry of Trade issues the cards in the name of household heads but they include details on each member of the family. The electoral commission obtained copies of the database supporting the system and used it to draw up an initial voter roll. U.N. experts, meanwhile, checked it for accuracy, and were satisfied with the results. The database ``was very well-developed and maintained,'' Valenzuela said. ``We estimate that the information...is at least 85 percent accurate.'' He said that if the process of amending the voter role in November is disrupted by violence, the initial one will be used. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 I'm waiting for Democrats to pounce on this process and say that requiring ID's is an infringement of voter rights. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-27 7:08:54 PM |
| #2 sludj - Lol! Mebbe Carter will volunteer to be "kidnapped" and held hostage to "force" Allawi to make sure the jihadis get the Muslim version of a polling advantage. Then we could all shed a tear when they beheaded the moron. Or not. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-09-27 7:00:18 PM |
| #1 Sounds like the Iraqi election might be perceived as fair. Better get Jimmy Carter over there pronto to cast doubt on the election months in advance like he is doing in Florida. The jihadis need some talking points to discredit the election. |
| Posted by: sludj 2004-09-27 6:55:21 PM |