Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Iraqis cast ballots for parliament
7,000 hopefuls vying, but turnout low
NAJAF, Iraq — Iraqis on Saturday voted in their first national election since the Islamic State upended the political and social order in the country, casting ballots that will help determine how Iraq’s next government leans in a region increasingly marked by global rivalries.
Nearly 7,000 candidates, representing conservative, Islamist, liberal, secular, communist and military political streams, are vying for 329 seats in Iraq’s parliament and for the upper hand in electing the nation’s next prime minister and president.
Saturday’s poll was devoid of the usual terrorist violence that has marred previous Iraqi elections, and there were few reports of irregularities. But calls to boycott the contest over a lack of substantive policy debate appeared to resonate with voters, and turnout was low. Iraq’s election commission said late Saturday that only
44 percent of the 22 million eligible voters participated — a steep decline from 62 percent in both 2014 and 2010.
The United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia will be closely watching the results, which are expected to be announced Monday. Over the past four years, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has maintained a delicate balance between Iranian and U.S. interests in his country while nourishing a reopening of political and economic ties with the Saudi monarchy.
Some of his chief opponents are closely aligned with Iran, setting up the possibility that Iraq could firmly place itself in Tehran’s camp at a time when Washington and Riyadh have dramatically stepped up their isolation of Iran. Last week, Iraqi politicians said they were concerned that the United States’ cancellation of the Iran nuclear deal could push Iran to impose itself more forcefully in Iraq.
“The international and regional pressure on Iran and on Shiites makes Shiites retrench more to defend themselves,” said Saad al-Mutalibi, who’s running on a ticket led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is close to Iran and is appealing to the Shiite identity politics that have dominated recent elections. “The anti-U.S. camp is getting stronger day by day because of U.S. mistakes.”
But in Iraq’s polling places, voters said their concerns are confined to their neighborhoods, towns and cities: They spoke of needing jobs, security and stability without the spasms of violence and sectarian hatred that they have endured for more than a decade since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
“We are looking for services and security and most importantly job opportunities for all us young people,” said Zaid Sahib, 25. “We are the priority.”
Early Saturday, al-Abadi’s office released photos of him being patted down by a security officer outside a polling place in his home district in Baghdad, smiling broadly before heading inside to vote.
It was a striking contrast with his opponents and other members of Iraq’s political elite who voted in the swank al-Rashid Hotel inside Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone. Al-Abadi’s office has repeatedly sought to portray the prime minister as an Iraqi everyman who eschews the elitist trappings of power.
His main opponents include his predecessor, al-Maliki, and Hadi al-Ameri, the head of one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite militias whose popularity soared for his role in fighting the Islamic State group. Both al-Maliki and alAmeri are closer to Iran than al-Abadi and have criticized the sitting prime minister for his pro-U.S. stances.
None of the candidates is expected to win an outright majority and probably will need to enter into postelection coalitions to have enough votes to elect a prime minister — a process that has taken months in recent elections.
Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric spoke out on the issue of voter participation Saturday afternoon, encouraging Iraqis to vote “to prevent the arrival of a corrupt parliament.”
“The lack of participation will give the opportunity for others to reach parliament and they will be very far from the aspirations of the people,” said Sheikh Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on local Iraqi television from Karbala. Al-Sistani has encouraged Iraqis to vote into power Saturday a new political class to combat corruption.
For those who did attempt to vote, some in Baghdad complained of voting irregularities at polling stations linked to a new electronic system implemented for the first time this year in an effort to reduce fraud.
Al-Maliki said he was aware of “violations” at some polling stations and complained the process lacked proper oversight.
“We are not reassured,” he said.
Thamer Aref, 45, along with his wife and daughter were turned away from a polling station north of central Baghdad.
Aref had turned in his old voter card months ago for the biometric identification card required by the new system. However, Aref’s biometric card wasn’t ready by Saturday and, with neither card, the polling station did not allow him to a cast a ballot.
“I lost my right to vote,” he said.
Amira Muhammed, the supervisor of a polling station in the Azamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad, said some people couldn’t vote because they did not pick up their new biometric ID cards in time.
“The problem is not with us,” she said.
A member of Iraq’s electoral commission deflected blame for Saturday’s reported irregularities.
“There were some problems with the electronic equipment due to misuse by some employees,” Hazem al-Ridini said.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Iraq’s next leader faces a slew of challenges stemming from the ruinous occupation of the Islamic State group and the nearly four-year war to expel the militants. More than 2 million Iraqis remain displaced from cities overwhelmingly damaged by the fighting. Some of them have been prevented from returning to their homes by a community that has branded them Islamic State sympathizers, effectively creating a pariah class of people with nowhere to turn.
Iraq’s government has estimated that it needs $80 billion to restore the cities damaged by the combat and has relied heavily on donations from the international community to raise the funds. Iraq’s coffers have been drained by a combination of wartime spending and oil prices that have fallen over the past three years.
Many of the candidates in Saturday’s elections said they will work to make Iraq’s economy less dependent on oil revenue while encouraging foreign investment and supporting the growth of a private sector to create new jobs. All of that will be underpinned by a systematic effort to eradicate the pervasive corruption that has plagued Iraq’s public sector.
The result of Saturday’s vote likely will play a role in whether U.S. forces maintain a presence in Iraq. Al-Abadi strongly supports keeping U.S. troops to advise and train Iraq’s military and police while his opponents say they want to significantly reduce and regulate the activities of those forces.
This year’s election has been characterized by mixed feelings over the prospects of change. Some voters, buoyed by al-Abadi’s announcement of the defeat of the Islamic State in December, see this vote as the beginning of a historic era in Iraq. Candidates eschewed traditional sectarian political rhetoric for a more conciliatory message of nationalism and inclusivity.
Al-Abadi’s ticket, Nasr, or Victory, embraced this change most ardently, leading many analysts and experts to predict that he likely will win the most seats — but not quite enough to secure anything close to a majority. The centrist political mood was embraced even by traditionally right-wing groups like the pro-Iran Shiite militias running under a large coalition called Fatah, or Conquest, led by al-Ameri.
It also has been a period of reinvention. Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, once one of the most ardent opponents of the U.S. occupation and who commands a sizable militia, has emerged as one of Iraq’s most enthusiastic reformists, calling on Iran to step back from Iraqi internal affairs.
His electoral list, which includes a coalition with the Iraqi Communist Party, is a roster of first-time candidates — a risky gamble for a movement that holds a significant bloc of seats in parliament.
In his hometown of Najaf, Sadr’s political gambit did not impress a group of people who held small demonstrations
calling for a boycott of the election.
Ahmed Riyad and Amir Abed emerged from a polling station in a middle school with their fingers clean, missing the trademark purple ink used to indicate that a vote has been cast. Abed said he had intended to spoil his ballot in protest, but Iraq’s new electronic voting system had thwarted his demonstration.
Riyad said he was there to support his friend and was formally refraining from the entire process.
“We haven’t seen change, and voting will not bring change,” said Abed, 23, a construction worker. “Even if the old faces are voted out, even worse new faces will replace them.”
At another polling place, Hasna Hashim, 70, smiled and held up her ink-stained finger as her son gently pushed her wheelchair forward. She bragged that she had used the same wheelchair to vote in every election since 2005, when Iraq began having national votes.
She said she voted for alAmeri’s ticket, saying he had led the fight against the Islamic State and that she believed in him to provide the security she craves.
“He’s our father,” she said. “He’s the one we depend on, only after God.”
Her son, Salam Fadel, 38, grinned as his mother spoke.
He had voted for a secular ticket called Tamadon, or Civilized Coalition.
“We tried the Islamists,” he said. “And that hasn’t done us any good.”