IRAQ: National election raises hopes for Iraqis
BAGHDAD, 7 March 2010 (IRIN) - Amid tight security and strict limits on vehicle movement, millions of Iraqis hoping for change went to the polls on 7 March in what is the country’s second parliamentary election since the US-led invasion of the country toppled the government of former president Saddam Hussein in 2003.
“I hope this time we get a strong government capable of maintaining security and stability and able to help all displaced people go back to their homes,” said Saif Abdul-Qadir Naji, 38, one of more than 2.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, according to the UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR).
Naji, a Shia Muslim from Baghdad’s Sunni-dominated southern suburb of Youssifiyah, said he fled his home with his family in late 2006 after receiving threats from Sunni militants at a time when sectarian violence shot up because of the bombing of a Shia shrine.
He returned to his home in late 2008 when the security situation started to improve, only to be driven out after just nine days.
“Militants broke into a nearby house belonging to another formerly displaced family, killed them and bombed their house so we fled again fearing the same fate. And I returned to the same two rooms I rent in a house,” Naji said, adding that his family had initially lived in a tent in an IDP camp but found conditions unbearable.
Challenges ahead
Facilitating the return of IDPs and the nearly 2 million refugees outside the country is one of the biggest challenges the new government faces. While some 300,000 have returned over the past two years, “large-scale returns have not taken place”, according to UNHCR.
Other challenges are insecurity, corruption, unemployment and poor public services, according to analysts.
“The outgoing government has been handcuffed from the beginning due to political wrangling, which took its attention away from improving basic services, health and education institutions, fighting corruption and creating job opportunities,” Mohammed Abdul-Aziz Jassim, a political sciences lecturer at the University of Anbar, told IRIN.
“Although it achieved some improvement in the security situation, which allowed some of the displaced people to return to their homes, it couldn’t offer services and other things as all the political parties were preoccupied with how to boost their power,” he said.
He hoped that the new government would “take office as soon as possible to handle daily needs” and not get bogged down in protracted negotiations between political groups to form the government, creating a power vacuum that would take the country backwards.
More than 6,200 candidates across Iraq are competing for 325 seats in parliament, according to Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission, while some 19 million Iraqis are eligible to vote.
Observers say the new government will face a crucial test to improve security and national reconciliation before US troops withdraw from the country in 2011.
Bigger role for NGOs?
While improved security since early 2008 has encouraged some foreign and local aid agencies to resume their operations in Iraq, and a new law giving more freedom to NGOs was passed in February, Iraqi activists are hoping for a new era of cooperation with the next government.
“The government and statesmen are still far from understanding the role and concept of NGOs,” Hanaa Adward, head of Baghdad-based Al-Amal NGO, said. “So I hope the coming period will bring new people who understand NGOs and the importance of having a partnership between them and the government.”
Ahmed Hassan Rasheed of the NGO Human Relief Foundation said bureaucracy and an absence of cooperation with some ministries were the main obstacles NGOs faced in doing their jobs.
“There is no link between NGOs and the interior and defense ministries to facilitate, for example, the transportation of aid materials or when implementing projects,” Rasheed said. “The problem is not with the law but with the one who implements the law, and whether he knows how to implement it properly.”
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
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Copyright © IRIN 2010
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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