DISPLACED IN IRAQ ARE IGNORED IN ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
▶ Politicians avoid camps’ hundreds of thousands of potential voters
Election campaigning is in full swing elsewhere in Iraq but hundreds of thousands of people in the country’s camps for the displaced barely register on the radars of election hopefuls.
In Camp Seven in the western Anbar province, not one campaign poster for the parliamentary vote on May 12 can be seen.
The rows of UN tents are part of nine sprawling camps in the region, housing thousands who fled the fight against ISIS.
They remain stuck in the desert camp, ignored by politicians about five months after the Iraqi government declared victory over the extremists.
For many of the residents, the disinterest shown by the election candidates is mutual.
“I have no confidence in them,” said Umm Maher, who fled her home in the former ISIS stronghold of Qaim.
She and others in the camp are angry at the destruction of their homes and the disappearance of male relatives they say were killed or seized by security services during the battle against ISIS.
“If they want our votes, they can give us back our children and homes,” said Umm Maher, 50, who does not know the fate of her husband and son.
Iraq is only just starting to recover from the years of ISIS dominance over large areas of the country and the punishing fight to force out the militants.
About 285,000 of the 2 million displaced people are registered to vote, the electoral commission says. More than 160 polling stations are being installed in 70 camps for the displaced, spread across eight of the country’s 18 provinces.
Election officials say identification requirements have been eased for those in the camps to encourage them to vote.
Despite that, Umm Maher and other female residents of Camp 7 will not be voting, because of the trauma left by the violence.
Umm Ahmed, 47, has not seen her son, 20, since he was seized three years ago.
She fled Saqlawiya, another former ISIS stronghold.
“I will not vote until my eldest son returns,” she said. “Besides, nobody has come to ask after us.”
Politicians admit that few of them have ventured into the camps.
“No candidate goes there, although the votes of the displaced are important,” said Hikmat Zeydan of the Rally for the Unity of Iraq, which has five candidates in Anbar. “Many are afraid of finding themselves in a difficult situation because they have done nothing to help the return of the displaced.”
One candidate, running on for Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi’s Victory Alliance in Samarra, north of Baghdad, is blunt about why he has stayed away from two nearby camps.
“We have not put up any posters and did not move because most families are Daesh,” Jassem Al Joubouri said.
Elsewhere in the country, some have made an effort at trying to represent the displaced. Abdel Bari Abbas fled his home west of the one-time ISIS bastion of Mosul, and is now standing as a candidate.
As he runs his campaign from Baharka camp, in Erbil province in Kurdistan, Mr Abbas said: “My family and the majority of Mosul residents have had many struggles. It is necessary to have a candidate who will make their voices heard.
“Problems will not be solved without us and I promised myself that if I am elected, my family and I will stay in the camp.”