First let me say that I am in solidarity with the Iraqi people, whether they chose to vote or not. Iraqis have been subjected to unfathomable trauma and pain. It is so very sad that this "election" has been the only straw of 'hope' offered to them and that it is undoubtedly an empty promise and this act of hope (voting) for some Iraqis is merely symbolic.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/election/2005/0118farce.htmIraqi Elections: Farce of the Century
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Centre for Research on Globalization
January 18, 2005
Registration for ex-patriate Iraqis to vote in the Iraq elections began on Monday in fourteen countries - Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, and runs until January 23. However, according to a renowned expert on international law, Sabah Al Mukhtar, the London based President of the League of Arab Lawyers, the election is not alone fatally flawed, it is illegal.
'Under the Vienna Convention, an occupying force has no right to change composition of occupied territories socially, culturally, educationally or politically. This election was based on the laws laid down by former 'Viceroy' American Paul Bremer and is entirely unconstitutional. Bremer personally appointed the overseers for the election', says Al Mukhtar, thus, far from 'free and fair' and heralding Iraqi 'democracy' they are entirely engineered by Bush's man. Further, says Al Mukhtar the names of those standing for election are not widely publicized, many names are indeed unknown and little or no manifestos have been published. However, what is publicized are the names and addresses of all who register to vote, they are displayed - in Iraq and all voting centers abroad - at all polling centers. This is simply and purely 'intimidation' says Al Mukhtar, it will 'encourage some and discourage others - disclosing names and addresses is highly dangerous, no one will be safe within or without polling stations, now or later', he contends. Intimidation needs no encouragement. Nadia Selim, from Notholt, Middlesex recounts in the Independent how her family in Hay Al Jamia in west Baghdad a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite neighborhood were planning to vote in spite of the dangers - until they were visited by their local shopkeeper. He requested they hand over their ration books for 'safe keeping'. The ration books are the means of identity for voters. Gunmen had visited him and ordered him to collect all ration books in the neighborhood. The family refused his request. Later he returned sobbing and begged them not to condemn his children to death, reluctantly they gave in. One can only speculate how widely similarly intimidating actions are being replicated throughout Iraq.
Further says Al Mukhtar no one knows who has drawn up the electoral lists and on what they are based. 'I am an Iraqi and entitled to vote, but no one has contacted me.' As a prominent and internationally well known Iraqi he can hardly have been overlooked one wonders how many other Iraqis who are hardly likely to have voted for puppet 'Prime Minister' Allawi and his gang have been similarly 'overlooked'. Further, allegation of intimidation of Iraqi ex-patriates abroad seems to be borne out by the fact that of an estimated seventy thousand Iraqis living in the north of England, just three hundred and fifty have so far registered to vote, according the Chair of the Manchester based Iraq Solidarity Campaign Hussein Al Alak. A strange reluctance in some cities to hold the elections in public building also appears to have crept in. Manchester Town Hall declined as a venue on the basis that there were too many weddings being held there on polling day. When the wily Al Alak checked, there was, in fact just one booked. 371 Oldham Road has now been designated in an area entirely dominated by the BNP. In Glasgow polling is inexplicably listed at two private houses, 71 Holland Street and 94 Elmbank Street.
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