Iraqi Voters Go To The Polls

Iraqi Voters Go To The Polls

Last updated at: 31.01.2009 11:20

By Charles Recknagel

Voting has begun in Iraqi elections everywhere outside the Kurdish-dominated north to fill beefed-up provincial councils that will replace those created in the country's last elections, in 2005.

A correspondent for RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq, Adel Mahmoud, reported from Baghdad that spirits among residents and voters were "very high" around midday, with sunny skies contributing to the possibility of a high turnout in a vote that is seen as a bellwether for the national mood and a possible breakthrough in local governance for Iraqis.

Mahmoud said sectarian tensions that plagued the last vote were not in evidence and "the general atmosphere is like some kind of festival."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has already said turnout appeared high so far among the 15 million eligible Iraqi voters.

"I am very happy because all the evidence indicates a great turnout of the people in voting, and this suggests people are confident in their government and it is an indication that the Iraqi people can distinguish [among political choices]," al-Maliki told reporters after voting in the capital. "We hope that these [provincial] councils will help provide good lives for the people because these councils have wide-ranging responsibilities."

New Voter Demands

Unlike four years ago, when security concerns restricted campaigning to posters and Sunni voters boycotted the polls, campaiging ahead of these elections saw candidates fan out across the country to bring out the vote.

There was a heavy security presence when polling stations opened this morning, however, with barbed wire and tightly controlled police lines protecting lines of voters.

The only significant disruption reported so far occurred when three mortar shells landed near voting centers in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, although no one was said to have been hurt in that incident.

Many of the more than 1,400 candidates are newcomers to the political game, and to electoral politics.

"Those candidates who are in positions of power can go as far as possible," Haythim al-Jiburi told RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq while campaigning in Baghdad with one of the many new small parties. "As for us without, we will try to reach out [to voters], God willing. Good luck to everybody."

Al-Jiburi then touched on some of the greatest challenges facing candidates in these elections: escaping the perceived corruption and mismanagement that was ushered in by the last voting.

"Our concern is that the winners should be those most dedicated to serving the people so that they can achieve what they have set out to do," al-Jiburi said.

Powerful Bodies

At stake are 440 seats on provincial councils in 14 of 18 governorates, with elections in the Kurdish-controlled north and the area around Kirkuk to come later. The new councils will enjoy greater power than those filled in the 2005 elections, including the right to select and dismiss provincial governors, approve budgets, influence the appointment and firing of police chiefs, and be involved in reconstruction and community projects.

At public meetings with the candidates witnessed by RFI correspondents, voters were demanding better local services in addition to better security. They say their neighborhoods lack enough electricity, clean water, and health care. And they vent anger over what many see as massive diversion of reconstruction funds -- both U.S. and Iraqi -- into the pockets of officials.

Results are expected to start emerging next week.

The widespread voter anger may help explain some surprising pre-election survey results.

One recent poll showed voters turning away from the religious parties that swept elections in 2005 and dominate the current government.

The poll of 4,570 people by the government-sponsored National Media Center showed 41 percent of respondents preferred secular candidates, while 31 percent would opt for candidates supported by religious parties.

Public dissatisfaction has sent some major political blocs scrambling to redefine themselves. Perhaps the most notable of those is the one around Prime Minister al-Maliki.

Al-Maliki, who is not running in the provincial elections, has sought to vastly widen his political base by becoming the public face of a coalition called State of Law. The grouping's title comes from the codename of al-Maliki's successful "Imposing the Law" security operations in Baghdad, Al-Basrah, and elsewhere last year. Its members include the prime minister's own Shi'ite religious party, Al-Dawah, plus a nationwide network of local politicians who support his goal of a strong centralized government.

The prime minister has sought to build the network by reaching out to mixed Shi'ite-Sunni tribes and by establishing "support councils" among Shi'ite tribes in the south. The support councils, intended to build security and furnished with government arms and money, report directly to al-Maliki's office.

In Iraq's center, where Sunnis largely boycotted national elections four years ago, voters were expected to turn out heavily this time. That may reflect a broad yearning for stability after years of violence.

"As you know, we did not participate in the previous election due to the domination of terrorists in the city. Thank God, after liberating the city, the residents of Ramadi are ready now to participate in the next election," Abdulsattar Abdulrazzaq, a resident of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, recently told Reuters. "We hope this election will be a clean and fair and what we hope from the candidates is to well represent the people in the provincial council."

Party Puzzle

Over the past year, U.S.-backed tribal leaders have formed Awakening Councils and done much to drive out Al-Qaeda elements. Many of the tribal leaders are themselves former leaders of the anti-U.S. insurgency who have now decided to compete for power peacefully instead.

In Anbar Province, where the Awakening Councils are mostly located, local tribal leaders were expected to do well against the Iraqi Islamic Party, an established Sunni party already participating in the Iraqi government. But in other Sunni regions, the ruling Iraqi Islamic Party is expected to remain dominant.

In Iraq's Shi'ite south, the provincial elections mostly will pit al-Maliki's loyalists against the most powerful Shi'ite religious party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI).

The ISCI currently controls four of the nine southern provinces, while Al-Dawah controls just one. The Supreme Council favors autonomy for the south, calling it the best way to preserve Shi'ite interests against a strong national government.

Independent and secular parties are not expected to do very well because of a lack of resources. Only the secular party of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is poised to take a share of votes.

It was unclear in the run-up to voting how much Shi'ite voters would turn away from religious parties on polling day. But it is significant that Iraq's pre-eminent Shi'ite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, refrained from endorsing a grand coalition of Shit'ite religious parties this year as he had four years ago.

A recent statement by al-Sistani's office said he "stands at an equal distance from all candidates" and urged voters not to boycott the election "despite not being totally satisfied with the previous electoral experience."

One of the big questions around the elections was whether women would be able to maintain the level of participation that they are prescribed under a 25 percent set-aside enshrined in Iraq's constitution.

The only provinces not holding elections are the three which make up the semiautonomous Kurdish region -- which has its own election schedule -- and the neighboring oil-rich province of Tamim.

Tamim province, whose capital is Kirkuk, is claimed by three different ethnic groups -- Kurds, Turkomans, and Arabs. There, the elections have been waived, at least ostensibly out of fear they would lead to violence.

Radio Free Iraq's Abdelilah Nuaimi contributed to this report. With additional wire reporting

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Iraqi_Voters_Go_To_Polls/1377070.html

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Iraqi Voters Go To The Polls