79 per cent Iraqis vote in favour of constitution

BAGHDAD, Oct 25: Iraqi voters ratified a new US-backed constitution despite bitter opposition in Sunni areas, results showed on Tuesday. Iraq’s electoral commission, giving final results from the Oct 15 referendum, said 79 per cent of voters backed the constitution against 21 per cent opposed in a poll split largely along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Several Shia and Kurdish regions voted between 95 and 99 per cent ‘Yes’; in Sunni-dominated Anbar 97 per cent said ‘No’.

Prominent Sunni leaders rejected the referendum as a fraud, warning it could fuel militancy and discourage Sunnis from participating in future elections.

Iraqi and UN election officials said the vote, which was largely peaceful despite widespread fears of a surge in guerrilla attacks, was fair.

The referendum’s final results showed that only two of the country’s 18 provinces, the guerilla stronghold of Anbar in the west and Saddam Hussein’s home region of Salahaddin in the north, had mustered a ‘No’ vote of at least two-thirds — one short of the three provinces necessary to veto the measure.

The northern province of Nineveh, thought to represent a third possible ‘No’ due to its large population of Sunnis, ended up with only 55 per cent of voters rejecting the charter.

Commission spokesman Farid Ayar rejected suggestions that results had been tampered with. “We didn’t invent these figures. It took us a long time to get them,” he told a news conference.

DECEMBER ELECTIONS: Passage of the constitution is a boost for Washington and the Shia- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad, paving the way for a parliamentary election on Dec 15 that both hope will mark Iraq’s emergence as a stable, federal democracy.

Politicians are racing to form the alliances that will shape the new parliament before a Friday deadline for parties and electoral coalitions to register for the elections.

“Politics is linked directly to security on the ground. The situation can only get worse now,” Hussein al Falluji, part of a Sunni team that negotiated the constitution, said, describing the results as a fraud.

Another Sunni politician, Saleh Mutlaq, said the vote could backfire on government efforts to defuse the resistance by persuading Sunnis they had no role in the political process.

A top UN election specialist, Carina Perelli, said she was confident the election had not been fixed. “The result is accurate. It has been checked according to the processes that we all follow when we have elections.”

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s representative in Baghdad, Ashraf Qazi, said the poll once again demonstrated how dangerously polarized Iraq had become.

Both the United States and Britain have sought to ease Sunni fears by emphasizing that the constitution can be amended after a new parliament is elected — an enticement for Sunni groups to field candidates and make their voices heard. —Reuters

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s representative in Baghdad, Ashraf Qazi, said the poll once again demonstrated how dangerously polarized Iraq had become.

"how dangerously polarized Iraq had become." ?Iraq has been polarized since it was born after WWI ! It wascertainly polarized under Saddam, but all differences were concealed by the iron fist of the "unity" of his government. All we did was to take the lid off.

When you lose a vote, declare it a fraud.

When you win and you win by a lot more than you expected, you do a recount and surprise... you really did win by that much.

But the losers still cry foul, and blow up buildings, and kill people who disagree with them.

We're so close to having Leftist extremists in our country taking that dangerous step toward terrorism. Two more failures in the elections and we'll probably start to see the first stirrings of home grown terrorists in opposition to Republicans. We've already had GOP offices shot at, personnel attacked, and get out the vote vehicles vandalized. And these by the Main Stream Left, of which there are at least 20% of the total voting population who qualify for that label.

And sadly, these are the people the Democrat leadership looks to as their base. Our conservative base, as odd as the further-out-there-right-wingers may be, is no where near that desperate or hate filled. I would entrust my life to a Far Right Christian American fundamentalist because I know that that person's creed includes my right to believe differently, so long as I don't strive to impose my differing opinions on them.

The Left has no such safety valve. There is no tolerance for conservatism. We view the Left with contempt. They view us with deep seated paranoia, suspicion, and hate. When they break the law in order to go after us, they justify their actions because they believe that we're doing the same things. When they register dead people to vote and try to fix votes, they believe that we're out there trying to do the same thing. We're not, but that's besides the point. It is what they believe and it is why the radical Left is such a big danger to our country. What they believe and reality differ so greatly that reason and rationality cannot penetrate their haze.

All we can do is continue to try and win elections and keep these people out of power, because if we don't... we risk ending up like Europe, but much worse. Over there the Radicals aren't in charge. Over there, they just think they are. In this country, the radicals are closer to power than ever before. They had a taste in Bill Clinton, and they want more.

Step lightly, carry a big stick... and pray to God that the swing voters see through the MSM.

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.