Elections’ Aftermath

[JAK1941]

Elections’ Aftermath

By Ghali Hassan

02/04/05 "Information Clearing House" -- It is true
that millions of Iraqis have participated in the “elections”,
but by international standard, the turnout was very low. On
the day of the elections Iraq was in a state of siege, cut off
from all directions. Journalists were also limited to areas of
higher turnout, and the international monitors stayed in
Jordan, 1200 km from Iraq. The elections were designed to
provide legitimacy to US Occupation. 

Despite the illegitimacy of the elections, which are held
under foreign military occupation, Iraqis who came out for the
elections voted to end the occupation, not to endorse its
continuity. About 7 million of the 18 million eligible Iraqi
voters in Iraq and about 280,000 of the 4 million Iraqi voters
outside Iraq voted in the elections. They were hoping that
their participation would lead to an end of occupation and
violence in their homeland.

Mainstream media and western pundits sold the elections as the
‘road toward democracy’. The opposite is true. The purpose of
the elections was to persuade the outside world, particularly
the US citizens, to support the occupation and US foreign
policy. US interests have very little to do with fair
elections and democracy. 

According to the US-based Carter Centre, which monitored
elections around the world, the US have endorsed illegitimate
and fraud elections in Azerbaijan but rejected or disendorsed
legitimate and democratic elections in Venezuela. Further, the
Centre did not participate in the Iraq’s elections because
Iraq’s elections do not met the elections’ criteria, such as
free and safe environment, and the ability of candidates to
move freely. The candidates, with their identities remain
secret, are those who entered Iraq on the back of US tanks,
collaborated with the Occupation, and depend on it for
survival. All independent voices in Iraq, regardless of
ethnicity, have boycotted the elections.

[snip]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7970.htm