"Lalalala...I...can't...hear...you...
Bush...evil...warmonger...blood...oil...
Halliburton...America...evil...lalalala..."
Posted on 01/28/2005 9:31:48 AM PST by hipaatwo
From Richard Beeston in Baghdad There is a palpable sense that the country is entering a new era FOR decades, voting in Iraq meant taking part in a national exercise of state-enforced adulation, as 99 per cent of the electorate would dutifully turn out to tick the box beside the name Saddam Hussein.
Yesterday the contrast could not have been starker, as the campaign for Sunday’s elections picked up pace and voters were presented with a dizzying selection of dozens of candidates and parties.
Notwithstanding insurgent terror aimed at wrecking the polls, there is finally a palpable sense in Baghdad, and other Iraqi cities, that the country is entering a new era.
At the Babylon Hotel tribal sheikhs in long gowns and Arab headdress gathered to hear politicians extol the virtues of Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, who was being touted as the only man with the strength and will to solve Iraq’s numerous problems.
Across town Kurdish voters were treated to large slices of chocolate cake, folk dancing and poetry readings praising democracy and reminding them of their duty to their nation.
Elsewhere street urchins were discovering that democracy can pay. They have been hired en masse to put up posters and billboards on every wall space available and probably paid a little extra to tear down the slogans of rival politicians.
Some of the campaigning methods are fairly crude.
One boy said that the police had given him a stack of posters of the Prime Minister and ordered him to put them up around his neighbourhood. The Iraqi Electoral Commission has received complaints that some parties have warned voters that they would “go to Hell” unless they supported their candidates. Others have used photographs of influential religious leaders, such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in their campaign posters even though the Shia cleric is not running in the elections.
While voters may be confused by the experiment in democracy, they cannot complain about a lack of choice. There is a Communist Party, with the message of a “free country and a happy people”, a monarchist movement pledging the restoration of the Hashemite dynasty, and even a party under the banner of Abdul Karim al-Qassim, the former brigadier-general who seized power in a military coup.
Voters from the Sunni population, many of whom may boycott the vote, will find themselves well represented should they visit the polling stations. Ghazi al-Yawer, the President, Adnan Pachachi, Iraq’s elder statesman, and even the Islamic Iraq Party, which has officially pulled out of the vote, will present party lists on polling day.
Political pundits agree that three of the coalition lists will dominate Sunday’s polls. The United Iraqi Alliance, a loose collection of more than 100 parties supported by Ayatollah al-Sistani, is expected to win as much as 40 per cent of the vote, drawing on the support of the majority Shia population in central and southern Iraq and Sadr City, in Baghdad. Not only do Shias believe that they will finally win power after centuries as second-class citizens, they have also been told that voting is a religious duty.
In spite of the strong religious backing, the party has been at pains to emphasise that it supports secular politics and rejects any notion of an Iranian-style theocracy. To make the point that it is not bound to Islamic doctrine, it put up posters of a beautiful girl with long, flowing black hair that looked more like an advertisement for shampoo.
The second-strongest coalition is the Kurdish Alliance, which could win up to 20 per cent of the vote. It is an amalgam of the two main movements, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Both groups want to protect the autonomy they have achieved over the past decade in northern Iraq and ensure that Kurds have a powerful voice in central government. They could well emerge as key coalition partners in any future government.
The fate of Dr Allawi’s Iraqi List is less clear. Condemned by critics as a puppet of America, and the man who authorised US forces to put down a rebellion in Najaf last year and storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, he nonetheless commands respect among many Iraqis who believe that the country needs a hard man to restore authority. The rest of the seats are likely to be shared by several smaller parties.
One thing not in doubt is that the elections will go ahead and that there will be a result sometime next month. “I think that despite everything, many Iraqis will vote on Sunday,” Fadel Alfatlwi, the head of the Iraqi Institute for Peace and an independent candidate, said. “With the occupation and all the horrible things that have happened, people dream that they will be wealthy and happy. That dream starts with the election.”
The MSM has its fingers in its ears singing lalalalalalala.
What an interesting, optimistic story from an unsuspected source. I wonder what other positive stories about the election we aren't being told by our pro-terrorist liberal news media.
I have been thinking that, no matter the outcome of the Iraqi elections, the MSM celebrities who are in Iraq covering the event -- will never be the same. They will be altered. History is being made.
I'm not sure how it will effect each of them personally, but there will be an effect. I pray it will be in the positive direction. Perhaps they will embrace "democracy" more tightly; perhaps they will report more fairly on the good work being done by the U.S.
All things are possible; miracles never cease. God's Will Be Done.
Shades of the blog Iraq The Model:
"Friday, January 21, 2005 - When we said weeks ago on this blog that we expect 80 percent of the eligible voters to participate in the elections we were considered to be far from representing the main stream opinion in Iraq. Now, I guess the results of this poll which were published on the Washington Post tells the naysayers something and proves that we didn't build our predictions from vacuum."
I predict an overwhelming turnout, far larger than the pundits expect (in all their dismal negativism).
The creation of new Iraqi blogs and Spirit Of America's Arabic blogging tool also bodes well.
The fervor for elections will result in a fervor for ending the terror, and for clearing Iraq of foreign Wahhabis and bloodthirsty Jihadis.
What a completely different tone than what we normally get!
" I wonder what other positive stories about the election we aren't being told by our pro-terrorist liberal news media."
Many, all too many:
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
http://www.friendsofdemocracy.org/
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/
http://iraqilibe.blogspot.com/
http://democracyiniraq.blogspot.com/
....and dozens more positive stories at those blogs.
Perhaps they will finally realize what a great country this really is and that those doing the hard work over there to bring freedom to Iraq are really our best and brightest and not them. God's will be done indeed.
I heard on the news that they have polling places set up in 14 countries and the US. WHY?
For expatriate Iraqis, who are Iraqi citizens.
Wonderful article! They sound so excited about it - as you say, it's a pity our media can't take off its ideological blindfold and join the party.
Worse than that, they are painting as dark of a picture as they can. If turnout is not 80% and big with the Sunnis, it will be a failure. Oh, I loathe them...
LOL Rush is reading the article now.
I was listening. It felt like some sort of wierd flashback.
Wonder what his screen name is here :)
I bet he's just a lurker.
I have no doubt he or his staff lurk here. Why would he not?
LOL, that is it exactly.
Awesome soounds like an early version of American politics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.