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A dizzying range of choices for voters

TheStar.com - A dizzying range of choices for voters

MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

Three brothers, three wives, two solitudes — and mercifully, no hard feelings.

That was how the religiously mixed Salihy family cast their votes yesterday in the Jordanian capital, showing themselves to be Iraqi exiles who know better than most how to live and let live.

The Baghdad-born Salihy brothers are Shiites, but like so many Iraqis, they married across the great Muslim divide, choosing Sunni wives.

In expatriate polling yesterday at Amman's upscale Swefiyah district, these men and women from a single family went their own sectarian ways, checking off Shiite and Sunni tickets, respectively.

But they left all smiles, content to respect each other's differences, and not especially disturbed by prognostications that Iraq teeters precariously close to sectarian civil war.

"We chose different parties, but this is the democracy," said Saad al-Salihy, 42, an architect, speaking on behalf of the family.

"I am happy with my choice and I am happy with my wife's choice. The important thing is we have a choice.

"This is new for us."

The frail family patriarch, 78-year-old Ameer Salihy, was the last to cast, moving with such difficulty that polling officials swooped in to help him deposit his ballot in the plastic voting box.

For the senior Salihy, the experience was not a first. He was there half a century ago as a young man, taking part in the 1954 balloting that marked Iraq's last multi-party elections.

Those who forewarn of a possible centrifugal breakup of Iraq often cite geography, referencing the Shiite south, the Sunni centre, the Kurdish north.

But families such as the Salihys are hardly uncommon, and serve as a welcome reminder of the interwoven reality of Iraq's complex cultural mosaic.

As in-country voting proceeds in Iraq today under blanket security measures, the lion's share of the estimated 12.4 million eligible Iraqi voters are finally to get a glimpse of the dizzying range of choices that have confronted out-of-country voters since Friday.

"We know this is not the best election," said Saad Salihy. "There are so many parties running that many of my friends decided to leave their ballots blank.

"They want to send the message that yes, they want to vote, but no, they have no idea who all these candidates are.

"I'm hoping that, with the next elections, we will see fewer parties (than the 111 different entities vying for power today). Maybe next time there will be 50, and the time after that, 20. Too much choice makes it impossible for us to know what to do."

Yad Patros, 31, an exile from northern Iraq, emerged from the Swefiyah polls proudly proclaiming his support for Iraq's Communist/secular bloc.

He identified himself as part of Iraq's minuscule Assyrian Christian minority, an ancient population that accounts for an estimated 200,000 of Iraq's 26 million people.

"We need a few of the seats of government for the Communists, to keep the religious people from going too far," said Patros.

"They will be there to remind Iraq of the key mathematical equation — that we must have a basis of understanding each other, so we can all get along."

Meanwhile, election organizers said just under one-third of registered Iraqi expatriates cast ballots on Friday and Associated Press said that number apparently had more than doubled yesterday.

Expatriate balloting continues today, the same day as elections in Iraq.

The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, which is conducting the expatriate vote for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said 84,429 of the 280,303 registered Iraqis cast ballots on Friday.

In other centres of pre-election voting:

Fistfights broke out at an Australian polling station for Iraqis abroad yesterday when a group of Islamic extremists chanted slogans against those casting ballots, while Iraqis around the world voted for a second day in their homeland's election.

The scuffle was the first report of trouble to mar polling that began a Friday under tight security, allowing Iraqi expatriates in 14 countries to cast absentee ballots for Iraq's first democratic election in half a century.

Underscoring Australian security concerns, protesters identified by ballot organizers as Wahhabis — followers of an austere brand of Sunni Islam suspected of having influence over militants in Iraq — yelled insults at voters.

Some 50 people scuffled after the protesters began taking photographs of the poll, being conducted in a neighbourhood dominated by Iraqi Shiites, organizers said, forcing the polling station to close for an hour.

No injuries were reported.

"This is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting," said Thair Wali, an Iraqi adviser for the International Organization for Migration.

IOM spokesperson Jean-Philippe Chauzy said no other violence had been reported at the international polling centres.

In Jordan, most Iraqis were enthusiastic as they lined up at the ballot boxes, even turning out in the hundreds in Zarqa, the hometown of Iraq's most feared terrorist leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, election officials said.

Thousands of Iraqis turned up at polls in Iran, which had the highest proportion of registered voters, amid tight security.

"I learned from my parents about past bitter days in my homeland and I voted in the hope of replacing that with a brighter future," said Ahmad Abai, 21, casting his ballot in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where he was born to Iraqi parents.

One-third of those registered in Syria voted Friday, and the flow was even higher yesterday, officials said. But many Iraqis turned up without having registered, leading to arguments and disappointment.

Many Iraqis drove hundreds of kilometres to reach the five U.S. cities with polling places: Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

In Britain, low numbers of registrants were attributed to a shortage of registration and polling places, fears of violence or reprisals from Iraq's violent insurgency and lack of documentation.

"It is a shame, for me it is very depressing," said Hashim Ali of the Iraqi Community Association in Britain, where 30,961 of the estimated 150,000 Iraqis eligible to vote had registered.

"These are great days for Iraqi people. I feel let down by the Iraqi community in the U.K."

In Norway, a fleet of buses transporting about 4,000 Iraqis left Oslo bound for polling stations in Goteborg in southern Sweden. More than 31,000 others living in Sweden also have registered to vote there.

In Denmark, the line for the polling station in the Copenhagen suburb of Taastrup stretched 650 metres, despite below freezing temperatures.

About 4,000 Iraqis voted in Denmark on Friday and another 5,000 cast ballots yesterday, organizers said.

To be eligible to take part in the elections, voters must be born in Iraq or have an Iraqi father, and have turned 18 on or before Dec. 31.

When voting concludes today, all overseas counts will be sent in to the operation's headquarters in Amman, which will forward them on to Baghdad.

The results will be announced several days later.

With files from Associated Press

January 30, 2005 at 10:54 AM in Iraq | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home