US keeps locations of Iraqi voting booths secret

[leftchick]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1284857.htm

US authorities say Iraqis will vote in the insurgent centres of Fallujah and Ramadi but officials will keep the number and location of polling stations secret until the last minute to prevent attacks.

"We're going to hold that right down to the bitter end to ensure that the enemy does not have much time at all, if in fact they decide to plan against those positions," said Lieutenant General John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Lt Gen Sattler says his goal is to ensure the "preponderance" of the estimated 500,000 voting-age residents of al-Anbar province have an opportunity to safely cast their ballots in the January 30 election.

The poll has emerged as an important test of wills between the insurgents and the US-led coalition.

Lt Gen Sattler says information on polling stations is being kept deliberately vague to make it more difficult for insurgents to plan attacks.

"Right now the enemy is trying to figure out where they're going to be, how many there are going to be, where will they be located, so that he can, in fact, take the scarce resources that he has and he can start planning now," he said.

[UL_Approved]

1. At what point does one raise the question:

How are people to vote if they don't know where the polling station are?

Once again, we see Bush policy hard at work. And now the plan: the election will happen, but people will not vote (except for those who tow the line...).

[booksenkatz]

8. They'd better not go to the wrong table

Their vote won't count unless they are at precisely the correct table at the polling station. Coff-coff.

[SoCalDem]

2. Does it really matter? The candidates are a "secret" too..

What an election..

Secret Candidates, to be voted upon at secret polling places, by people who fear for their lives if they vote... and 4 out of 18 provinces are too "dangerous" to even register voters..

Would you trust a surgeon who told you he only removed 14 of 18 cancerous lymph nodes?

[sweetheart]

3. better than nothing

As much as i deplore the occupation and the faux-election. Were i
iraqi, i would probably vote, as it is another step towards getting
rid of the american criminals.

What is the alternative... more occupation and no elections? Pulling
out without elections leaving a flimsy puppet to be overthrown by
an armed insurgency.

I'm a big fan of cut and run, and holding a poll will at least begin
the process of setting up a sustainable government for a brutalized
people.

Funny the republican interpretation of "secret ballot" is to make the
balloting location and rights secret from the voters....
seems all to common in the USA as welll.

As military will is politics by another means...( poor paraphrase of
Von Clauzewitz), it seems that world politics will keep the insurgency
fired to drain the financial and imperial will of the bush-hitler...
and sadly, i can't help but root for the other guys, as any strike
against the bush people, is a strike for justice. It is sad indeed
that the bush criminals are fighitng our civil war on iraqi soil...
and one day, when its all over, must i lay flowers for the unknown
iraqi civilians in the path of our ugly monster.

[Matilda]

13. There's no way the occupation will ever end.

They've just built themselves nice new military bases, and someone
has to stay there to live in them.

They also have to make sure they will continue to control the oil.

No way can the Americans leave.

[sweetheart]

16. body bags and flag draped coffins

The americans will leave, just differently than they plan to.

It is the fact of imperial overstretch, that the common soldier
pays the price for the evil of their master.

There was a time, when germany was not planning to leave france,
having just built themselves nice new military bases.

If one thing repeats itself from history, its that line. :-)

[pinerow]

4. When will they let the Iraqi's in on the secret...Feb 1st...?

nt

[robcon]

5. Anyone who votes in those cities deserves credit.

You would have to be very brave to vote in the areas where the Sunni insurgents are expected to murder voters.

[saigon68]

6. CIA PUPPET ALLAWI has already been selected by his handlers

This whole deal is a sham

And on Feb 1, the killing and mayhem will continue, until the NeoCons and their "Voluntary Army" are ejected from Iraq-Nam by the Resistance.

[highnooner]

7. No big deal

They'll be using the same machines used in the good ole USA. The election is a foregone conclusion.

ALLAWI WINS!

[leftchick]

11. Indeed and look how he gets around Iraq...

The US will have to stay to guard their installed killer puppet. Check out the caption....




U.S. special forces escort Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi after the delivery of a C-130 transport plane to the Iraqi air force in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005. The U.S. Air Force has now delivered a total of three of the C-130 Hercules planes to the Iraqi air force, although Iraqi flight crews are yet to fly solo missions.(AP Photo/John Moore)

[Trailrider1951]

15. No kidding

"Free and fair elections...." my a$$! They don't want free and fair elections in CLEVELAND, much less in Baghdad!

[0007]

9. It worked in many states here in the U.S. I have no doubt that

it will work in Iraq.

[Solly Mack]

10. America can't even get an election w/o fraud in America

Why on earth would I believe America can do it in Iraq?

I can't trust America's elections. I certainly can't trust elections in Iraq that America oversees.

[dqueue]

12. Didn't they do that in Florida, too? n/t

[Massachusetts]

14. Allawi = Dead man Walking

[k8conant]

17. Secret ballot, secret polls, secret candidates...

and then B & C will declare: "It's no secret that the elections were free and fair".

[Fridays Child]

18. No problem. Just put Katherine Harris on the case. Those Iraqis...

...will NEVER find their voting booths. MWAH HA HA!!

[keopeli]

19. I have a question. What kind of machine will Iraqis in the US be using

when they vote? Diebold? Do you think it's way off base to guess that, at the very least, an unusually large chunk of the votes will come from the US? Of course, if that's true, they'd probably mask that figure.

Let's see, voters in Iraqi provinces will have undermanned stations at undisclosed locations, though long lines will disappear as soon as the first bomb goes off. On the other hand, voters on US soil will find casting a ballot to be very simple with no waiting in line.

I really wish someone with some information would create a website with the complete Iraqi ballot and all the campaign positions of each candidate, like a voters pamphlet, for all of the world to see. Wouldn't that be something? A list of hundreds and hundreds of names with no official platform, party, or position. We could have a mock election in the US and see who we would pick.