Iraq votes, but few are optimistic
Some voters align themselves with leaders, knowing winners provide jobs
BAGHDAD — Ahmed Abdelruba needs a job. Twenty-three years old and idle, he’s embarrassed he can’t contribute to his family’s rent. So, on Saturday, he did what many Iraqis before him have done: he voted, and prayed a political patron would put him to work.
As Iraq waits for the results of its national elections, The Associated Press is publishing accounts from the polling stations to understand why Iraqis voted, or didn’t vote, the way they did.
Turnout was a record low 44 per cent, according to the national election commission, underscoring the gloomy political mood reflected in these interviews. Many who did vote cited patronage and personal connections for going to the polls.
“I want some advantage from the party, from the state — anything will do,” said Abdelruba, who said it was his first time voting.
He said he cast his vote for influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s political block, which runs a network of hospitals, charities and schools that employ people from Abdelruba’s Baghdad neighbourhood.
The cleric, who campaigned on a cross-sectarian platform of fighting corruption and investing in the country, is expected to do well in Baghdad, where some three million people live in the deprived Sadr City quarter, named after Sadr’s father, Ayatollah Mohammad Sadq al-Sadr.
Sadr is also a staunch foe of Iranian and American influence in Iraqi politics.
In a more affluent family, Abdelruba — tall and athletic, and a touch diffident — might be expected to marry at his age. But he lives at home with his parents and seven other relatives, and everyone pitches in for rent.
In Iraq, finding work is above all about who you know and who you support. When political parties win ministerial posts, they bring in followers to the agencies they take over; the larger the electoral victory, the greater the spoils. They also employ loyal supporters and family members at their charities, hospitals and schools.
“All those people who are affiliated with a party, they find jobs,” said Abdelruba, who said he let Sadr officials know he was voting for their list.
His father, Jassim, said it was up to Ahmed to “take advantage of his youth.”
“Before it’s too late,” Ahmed quipped.
Not all voters see such a direct line between voting and employment.
“Even if I voted, do you think someone is going to say to me, come have a job? No one does,” said Sabah Sobhi, 34, who sells sandwiches by the side of the road. He sat the elections out, after voting four years ago.
This election’s tepid turnout has worried politicians and activists who say they will try in 2022 to bring young voters out. No election since 2003 has had a turnout below 60 per cent.
Polling station officials blamed it on a combination of tight security measures, voter apathy and irregularities linked to a new electronic voting system.
Fatima Jassima, 30 voted for the former youth and sports minister, Abdulhussein Abtan, who campaigned on his record of building stadiums across the country. He ran on a list loyal to Shiite cleric Ammar Hakim, who is not expected to win a leading number of votes.
“He did something for Iraq,” said Jassima, of Abtan.
Plenty of Baghdad’s voters cast their ballots for candidates they said they knew personally.
Maha Kamel and her sister, both under 30, voted for a candidate on a minor party list.
“If I didn’t know him, I wouldn’t have come out to vote,” said Kamel. She said she had little faith in the political process and was concerned with finding work. A 2012 graduate of Baghdad University, she said she has never held a steady job.
“We are unemployed.”