Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Iraqi Elections	Choux	01/25/05
Looks like the Iraqi Elections are going to be a huge success! *Phew* Many of the people have gotten behind the idea of voting and having a say in their government. Actually, loving the idea. (Per polls)I hope that this potential success will prove America right for being pro active in going after the causes of Islamofascism. What are your thoughts about the upcoming elections?
Clarification/Follow-up by powderpuff on 01/29/05 8:02 am: AP Iraqi President: Most People Won't Vote 1 minute ago Middle East - AP BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s president predicted Saturday that most of his country's people will not go to the polls for a historic election Sunday, mostly because of security fears. "We hope everyone will participate," President Ghazi al-Yawer said at a news conference the day before the vote. "But the majority prefer not to participate for fear of going out to polling stations." He said a minority of people would not vote because they were boycotting the vote for political reasons. But he predicted most of those who stay away would do so because of their fears of attacks. Overall, al-Yawer predicted that a majority of the country's eligible voters would not show up at the polls. Clarification/Follow-up by powderpuff on 01/29/05 10:20 am: Hi Chou, Chicago Tribune Nation in near-lockdown as election work hastens Now I just read another article in the news that said in some places they are expecting near 100% turnout. With a higher percent in the south and a lower percent in the north (I think).. Anyway, we will know soon enough if it the election will go well with a large turnout or not. " The director of the provincial election commission, Asaad Ramadan, said officials were expecting turnout as high as 100 percent in some areas but less in northern reaches of the largely rural province because of "the existence of some terrorists in that area." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl= story&cid=2027&e=10&u=/chitribts/20050129/ ts_chicagotrib/nationinnearlockdownas electionworkhastens Clarification/Follow-up by powderpuff on 01/29/05 10:27 am: oops, don't think that link will work... oh well, I tried :|
Answered By		Answered On
powderpuff		01/25/05
I don't know Chou, this is the latest news I've heard. Doesn't look too promising to me: Fear eroding Iraqis' resolve to vote Tue Jan 25, 9:40 AM ET Top Stories - Chicago Tribune By Liz Sly Tribune foreign correspondent Schoolteacher Rajah Musa was perhaps a little too enthusiastic about Sunday's election in Iraq (news - web sites). He talked frequently about it, he urged all his neighbors to vote, and at the local high school where he teaches, he lectured his students about the benefits democracy brings to a society. Three weeks ago, a car pulled up outside his home as he set out for work and a gunman opened fire. Musa ducked--one of the bullets grazed his head--but he has gone into hiding, terrified for his life, and he has ordered all the members of his family not to vote. "It is sad, but it isn't safe," said his son, Anis, 23, who had shared his father's eagerness for the elections until the attack. "We were expecting that everybody in the family would go together and vote in peace, but because of this we're very afraid and now we won't go." Across Baghdad and wherever insurgents are present, Iraqis are asking the question that many regard as the overriding issue of this crucial election campaign: Will it be safe to vote? And as election day approaches with little sign that the insurgency is easing, many who had looked forward to the election are reassessing. The government says it is doing everything it can to secure the safety of the nation's 5,000 polling stations. It still has not divulged their locations, in the hope of denying insurgents the opportunity to target them in advance. Security cordons around the polling places will prevent cars from approaching, in an attempt to deter suicide bombers. Insurgents reinforce fears But that may not be enough to reassure nervous Iraqis whose fears are not confined to bomb attacks on election day. Just as worrying to many people is the presumed presence of insurgents in their neighborhoods who may see them heading out to vote and target them later. The story of Musa's narrow escape has flown around Saadiyeh, a majority-Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad plagued by insurgents. Anis Musa suspects neighbors, or perhaps students at his father's school, informed on his father's pro-democracy inclinations. The Musa family are Shiites, but many Sunnis in the area who also want to vote say they, too, are having second thoughts. "There's zero chance. I'm not voting," said Ahmed Sami, 25, who lives about a mile away from the Musas and had intended to vote for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. In the past couple of weeks, Sami has noticed a car filled with gunmen that parks on his street shortly after the city's 11 p.m. curfew begins. Sometimes the men, wearing masks, walk in the street as though they are patrolling, and that's been enough to convince him and his family that the insurgents are watching. "They're everywhere and they know what everyone is doing," he said. "My father, my mother and my brother all feel the same. We all want to vote, and at the beginning we decided we would. We thought the situation would get better day by day. But instead, the situation got worse day by day." Much is riding on the turnout for Sunday's election, at which voters will select a 275-member National Assembly to write a new constitution. In the Kurdish north and in majority Shiite areas, where enthusiasm for the election runs high and the influence of insurgents is low, a good turnout is expected. But if fear deters voters in Sunni areas, many Iraqis may challenge the fairness of the vote, undermining the legitimacy of the new government and of the new constitution drawn up by the assembly. Poll predicts high turnout A poll released by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute last week predicted a turnout of more than 81 percent, roughly reflecting the proportion of Shiites and Kurds in the population. The survey also found that more than half of Sunnis intend to vote, despite the threat of violence in many Sunni areas. But the institute's survey was conducted in late December and early January, when many Iraqis say they were still hoping there was time for the government to improve security. Iraqi election officials predict the turnout will be about 50 percent of the 14 million eligible to vote. "It's because of the threats to chop off my head," said Rula Mazem, 20, who says no insurgents live in her neighborhood, but that her mother forbade her from voting after hearing that leaflets were distributed nearby threatening death to voters. "My sister and I wanted to vote anyway, and we had a big argument with our parents, but my mom said, `No way--no one is going to vote,'" Mazem said. "She said we would be beheaded, so we're not going." In Iraq's closely knit families, the question of whether to vote is being treated as a life-or-death decision that must be taken collectively, because if one person goes to vote, all members of the household could be put at risk, explained Munir Taleb, a mother of five who lives in the Baghdad suburb of Dora, known for its insurgent activity. "Either we all should be brave and go to vote or everyone stays at home," she said. Her family has yet to decide what to do. Taleb wants to vote, but her husband is against it, ever since he brought home a leaflet he said was thrown to him by a man in a passing car. It bore the logo of the Islamic Army, and the words: "To vote is to condone the occupation." She is hoping he will change his mind, but if he doesn't, she is contemplating slipping out to the polls without telling him, if she can find a way to do so without any of her neighbors noticing. She said she wasn't aware that indelible ink would be used to mark the fingers of voters, to prevent them from voting twice, and the discovery troubled her. "Is there any country in the world living in fear as much as ours?" she asked. "I have no fear, but my neighbors make me afraid, my husband makes me afraid, and I don't know what to do." I found this on yahoo news. It sounds to me like there will be more people afraid to vote than will actually get out and vote. powderpuff

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