Margaret BauerIn the face of violence that gripped Iraq throughout last week and escalated on election day, Iraqis cast their ballots in large numbers Sunday in the country’s first free election in over 50 years.
Observers are confident that voter turnout exceeded 50 and might be even closer to 60 percent. Vote counting is currently underway, with the preliminary results expected by the end of this week. Final results of the election won’t be tallied until sometime next week.
The election did not come without violence, with at least 44 people killed and over 100 wounded in attacks. A deadly rocket strike at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad killed two Americans and wounded others Saturday.
Other pockets of violence erupted, including at least eight suicide bombings, but high security by Iraqi and American forces kept most of the streets empty on election day. Only limited foot traffic was allowed in parts of the city and vehicles were kept at bay through various checkpoints.
More than 14.2 million Iraqis registered to vote. Iraqi expatriates were also eligible and have been voting in some 14 other countries-including the United States-from last Friday through Sunday.
Ghassan Al-Eqabi, a staff scientist in the University’s earth and planetary sciences department, traveled to Chicago Saturday along with his wife and five other friends to cast his vote. He registered there two weeks ago and said that there was a sizable crowd Saturday, but he didn’t have to wait long to cast his ballot.
“There was a jubilant atmosphere at the voting site,” Al-Eqabi said. “Everyone was excited and friendly.”
Al-Eqabi said he thought the election was a success and that Iraqis showed courage by voting. He spoke with his sister in Baghdad yesterday and said that she had been nervous to go at first but went to the poling site later in the day where there was around a two-hour wait.
“This election was a successful process. If some didn’t show up, you don’t cancel the party,” he said. “This is democracy at its best. No one was forced to vote.”
The purpose of this election, which many observers believe is the first step in transitioning back to independence, was to elect 275 representatives to a parliament that will be given the charge of drafting a constitution for the nation. While these officials will not be directly governing the country, they will be the key architects of a constitution that will be put to a vote in front of the Iraqi people later this year. Voters also elected members to 18 provincial councils and filled seats for a semi-autonomous Kurdish parliament.
Many expect the Shiite Muslim majority to win a majority of seats in the election. Shiites comprise roughly 60 percent of the population in the country by most estimates. The Sunni Muslim minority has been mostly silent and most observers expect a low turnout from this group, although early estimates have Sunni turnout at around 40 percent in some areas.
Over 7,000 candidates from over 100 parties were vying for seats in this election. Leading coalitions include the United Iraqi Alliance and the Iraqi List. The Iraqi List is led by current Iraqi leader Iyad Allawi, while the United Iraqi Alliance is one of the largest coalitions of Shiite parties. Support is also expected to be high for the Kurdistan Alliance List. Many prominent Sunni political organizations boycotted the election.
Professor Victor Le Vine has been teaching a course on Middle East politics at the University for over 40 years and has integrated discussions on the implications of the Iraqi elections into readings and other aspects of the class this semester. He noted that a Western understanding of democratic elections is rare in the Middle East and for Iraq to have an election where there’s some degree of free choice is unusual.
“If they can pull it off with a voter turnout of somewhere around 50 percent then we have something remarkable for Iraq,” Le Vine said.
Le Vine also noted that contacts of his in the region have sounded optimistic leading up to the election, even in the face of attacks by the insurgency. He believes that the insurgents have been largely ineffective in their tactics and in the process have not won the support of many Iraqi citizens.
Students in the course say they have found class discussions thus far to be useful in gaining an understanding of the complex factors that come into play in the politics of such a diverse region.
“We’ve been discussing a lot of history thus far, particularly how religion plays into political issues in these countries,” said senior Sarah Snyder.
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Major Coalitions/Political Parties
The following is a list of some of the major coalitions and a few of the parties running under their banner.
UNITED IRAQI ALLIANCE:
-Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Shiite Islamist) – Abdel Aziz al-Hakim
-Iraqi National Congress (secular) – Ahmad Chalabi
Also includes nine other Shiite and Turkmen parties and prominent Saddam-era dissenter Hussain al-Shahristani
IRAQI LIST:
-Iraqi National Accord (secular) – Prime Minister Iyad Allawi
KURDISTAN ALLIANCE LIST:
-Kurdistan Democratic Party (Kurdish) – Massoud Barzani
Key Political Players
-Iyad Allawi – Appointed interim prime minister one month before the US restored Iraqi sovereignty in June. A Shiite politician, Allawi’s task will be to prove that he is not merely a lackey to the Americans.
-Massoud Barzani – Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, he fought with US troops against Saddam in order to gain freedom for the Kurds. He is allied with his former rival, Jalal Talabani to pursue a democratic Iraq.
-Ahmad Chalabi – Once a close ally to the Pentagon, Chalabi is now leader of the Iraqi National Congress party, and is aligned with Shiite groups despite his own secular outlook.
-Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim – Top member of the main Shiite list, he is the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has been involved in US-led institutions recently.
-Adnan Pachachi – A Sunni statesman leading a secular party, Pachachi has called for a postponement of the lection until violence cools, worrying that Sunni minority voters will be frightened away from the polls. He was the foreign minister in the 1960s, before Saddam rose to power, and is a longstanding US supporter.
-Moqtada al-Sadr – al-Sadr is not aligned with any particular group, but has supporters running as independents. A Shiite cleric, he has staged two anti-US revolts in the past year, but is now observing a truce. Using the reputation of his murdered father Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, he has built a fervent group of young, impoverished and dispossessed citizens.
Iraqi Election Timeline
January 18: Gunmen kill national assembly candidates Alaa Hamid and Shaker Jabbar Sahla and Basra provincial council candidate Riad Radi.
January 24: Sunni Arab leaders plan to become involved in politics after election, even though they called for boycott of election.
January 25: Registration for Iraqi voters living abroad closes after a 2-day extension. Far fewer people registered than was expected.
January 27: Iraqi insurgents kill candidate Salem Jaafar al-Kanani, a member of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s party.
January 27: Iraqi newspapers print the names of 7,000 candidates for the National Assembly. Names had not been printed earlier to protect candidates from assassination attempts.
January 29: Iraqi borders are sealed, and the airport is shut down. Government offices plan to take a three-day holiday. Nightly curfews from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Cars will only be allowed on the road with special election badges, or in the case of medical emergency.