Iraqis to challenge placement of Aust polling booths

[cal04]

Up to 1,000 Iraqis are expected to stage a protest outside the United Nations Association office in East Perth today in a bid to increase the number of polling booths at which they can vote in the Iraqi presidential election. Australia is one of 14 countries where Iraqis living overseas will be able to vote in their national elections, which are due to be held later this month.

However, the only polling booths will be in Sydney and Melbourne.
There are believed to be up to 9,000 Iraqis living in Western Australia and over half of them are eligible to vote. Iraqi community leader Bardri Latif says it will not be possible to get them all to the eastern states to vote. They are calling on both the State Government and the Federal Government to intervene."We need support of the Australian Government and, especially, the West Australian Government... to make the vote centre in Western Australia because it's not fair, as we believe," he said.

About 80,000 Iraqi Australians overall will be able to register to vote from the middle of January. They will have to return to cast their votes later in the month.Mr Hogan says he understands the concerns of communities in Perth and Adelaide but there simply is not the time or money to set up proper voting procedures.

"I've been receiving a lot of telephone calls from community leaders in both Adelaide and Perth and they are very disappointed that they are being left out," he said. "It's not my decision, it's a decision that's been confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq.
"I have to abide by the decisions that they make and work within the parameters that they set."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1276596.htm

[oneighty]

1. First tell us how you intend to vote

Then we will decide.

180

[leftchick]

2. I would indeed protest if they have to use Diebold...

Like we had to for the 2004 election fraud in the USA!

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

3. Love to know what resources are needed.

They're obviously not using the standard Australian voting procedure of pencil and paper. That would hardly take massive resourcing.

My guess is they're using some fabulous, expensive American-designed electronic voting system. In which case they're probably wasting their efforts voting anyway because the result will be what the US has already decided on.

[daleo]

4. True - The counting is complete

All that is needed now are the votes.

[velvet]

5. this so sucks

Expecting people to travel vast, expensive distances to register and to vote. We have postal voting, why the hell can't they do it by mail?