"This Election Is No Good"

By Zelie Pollon, AlterNet. Posted January 25, 2005.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – With the Iraqi elections less than a week away, all eyes are focused on the likelihood of "spectacular attacks," the intimidation of voters, and whether Sunni Muslims, who have long requested a postponement, will show up at the polls at all.

But one of the most common question one hears from Iraqis – from Sunni and Shiite, from those who will vote and those who swear they won't – is: Who are the candidates?

"I have no idea who these people are," said Adil Guzzaz, 47, a Shiite who owns a small grocery store off of Karada Street. He and his friends fear a religious extremist government in Iraq and say a military leader would best deal with the chaos reigning in the country. "We are all religious in Iraq but we want an honest, educated leader, not someone crying about what happened 2,000 years ago," said Guzzaz. "It doesn't matter if he's Sunni, Shia or Kurdish."

Iraq's elections are scheduled for Jan. 30, when a 275-member National Assembly will be chosen to draft the country's first constitution, to be completed by August and followed by national elections in December.

For now, there is confusion about the candidates, there are disagreements among Iraqis about participating or boycotting and there is the ever-present fear of violence on election day.

"Who are these people?"

The Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, are largely expected to dominate the elections over the minority Sunnis who held most of the power during Saddam Hussein's regime. The Shiite spiritual leader, Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who is widely respected and has been a voice of reason for Shiites, has requested that all Shiites vote.

Sunnis make up about 20 percent of Iraq's population and have so far threatened to boycott the election, claiming it should be postponed, that it will not be legitimate and that it is designed to extend the U.S. occupation. The request for a delay in the election, as well as a pullout date from the U.S. has been largely ignored. Despite an official call by the Iraq Islamic Party and Association of Muslim Scholars to boycott the elections, not all Sunnis agree as they see this as an essential way to participate in the new government of Iraq.

Sadiq Obed Al Dulaimi and his family are Sunnis from Fallujah who are trying to inspire voting among everyone in the Dulaimi Tribe.

"This is very important for our family," said Dulaimi, who is a 32-year-old father of three. "We sit with people and say, 'What is your opinion? Where is your voice?' Everybody I see, I say 'You will go?' They say, 'Yes, I must go.' So far, we have 562 people in Baghdad who will vote."

Dulaimi said he has encountered many people in Fallujah who refuse to participate while others, like his uncle, will not say. But for Dulaimi, it is the only choice for change he can imagine at this time, and working with Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, for whom he will vote, seems a good option. "We need an end to this life," he said. "If there is some death [during the election], no problem, but we cannot live like this anymore. Either I leave Iraq or I will be killed here. Right now these are my choices."

Yazin al Tikriti, a 21-year-old Sunni who works for a cell phone company in Baghdad, said he would not waver. Will he be voting? "No, never," he said. "The Sunnis say you must not vote and I will not. This election is no good."

Others feel just as strongly, but for different reasons. Yusrah Naif, a 52-year-old Shiite who works at a small store on an American base, said she has no idea who the candidates are and is more concerned about security than an election of strangers. "Who are these people? Where do they come from?" she asked. "Put yourself in my place, who would you vote for?"

The Fear Factor

Around Baghdad, billboards espouse the benefits of voting with an image of a hand dropping a ballot into a box. Pasted on walls and at bus stops are smaller signs advertising a number, some featuring a smiling face, many showing popular Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, which advocates the Shiite coalition, number 169 on the ballot. There is little or no mention of any candidate platform in the election propaganda, tending more to general proclamations such as, "To honor the blood of thousands of martyrs, elect one Iraq."

Zelie Pollon, a freelance writer from Santa Fe, NM, is in Iraq for the second time. The first time she interviewed more than 100 Iraqi citizens for an independent project called the Baghdad Project.

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