Lebanon, Tenn. Police officers in Wilson County have been told they can't work the upcoming Iraqi elections in Nashville because the polling places they would be guarding might be the target of terrorist attacks.
The Mt. Juliet police department and the Wilson County Sheriff's office both say they are banning their officers from helping out with the elections.
(WVLT Volunteer TV)Baghdad Burning: river, not a fan of the interim government on the best of days, describes the bleak water situation. [I feel the water situation could become an issue in the upcoming elections. -ed.]
Healing Iraq: Zeyad gives us a countdown to elections post, giving an overview of election and also opinions on security issues, Ba'athist/Sunni participation, and more. Zeyad also briefly mentions that he will not be blogging again until the elections are over.
Daily Kos: a thread on how Iraqi election security is a mess.
Belmont Club: Continues the series Lost Elections 2 and Lost Elections 3. [and thanks to B.C. for linking to us -ed.]
The Adventures of Chester: Chester found a commercial in support of the Iraqi elections, aired on Arabic-language TV in Iraq.
The deadline for expatriate Iraqis to register for voting in the upcoming 30 January elections has been extended by two days due to low registration figures. The extensions was made on Saturday after only about one in eight of those eligible to vote signed up during the initial phase. (Al Jazeera)
A similar story from AP.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iraq Iyad Allawi has said it will be impossible to provide full security for this month's parliamentary elections. Mr Allawi said the measures being put in place were not enough to prevent all attacks by insurgents. He was speaking after two more suicide bombings apparently targeting Shias killed at least 25 people on Friday. (BBC News)
A list of the main players in Iraq's elections. (AP via Boston Globe)
And from the Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt), examines some of the more prominent of the 285 electoral lists: The National Accord List (include Allawi), Unified Iraqi Alliance (Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim), The Independent Democrats Coalition (Adnan Pachachi).
Millions of ballots have been printed, thousands of voting booths assembled and 300,000 Iraqi and American troops put at the ready. Everything is in place for Iraq's national elections. All that's needed now are voters. Participation is the crucial question in next Sunday's parliamentary election, which the insurgents, mostly Sunni Arabs, have vowed to disrupt. Substantial Sunni turnout in the face of intimidation and murder could spell the beginning of the end of the rebellion and hasten the day when America can bring home its 150,000 troops. (AP via Boston Globe)
Violence alone would not discredit the results of Iraq's January 30 election despite the fact that conditions for the vote were far from ideal, the United Nations' electoral adviser in Iraq said overnight. "I know that there will be violence leading up to the elections and there's likely to be violence during the elections. I still do not believe that this will disqualify the elections," said UN electoral adviser Carlos Valenzuela a day after two car bombs killed 27 people. (The Herald Sun [Australia])
Jim Miur, BBC News: Danger haunts Iraq's campaign trail. With just a week to go before elections, Iraq has seen an upsurge of violence by insurgents determined to drive out the Americans and their allies. How long can the region sustain the fight for what President George W Bush has called the worthy prize of Iraq's liberation?
Iraq gas shortages overshadow election. Taxi driver Raed Ali sleeps in his cab in streets that crackle with gunfire after dark, risking robbery or death to get a good spot at daybreak in one of the gasoline lines that wind through Baghdad's muddy alleys and gridlocked thoroughfares. The irony of fuel shortages in one of the world's leading sources of petroleum is high on the list of hassles facing Iraqis, siphoning off much of the excitement over next week's national elections. [...] (AP)
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed speculation that the Iraqi elections "won't happen" or will be delayed beyond Jan. 30 during an inaugural ball here Jan. 20 honoring troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. (US Dept. of Defense)
Associated Press gives a just-the-numbers rundown on Iraq's elections.
In many parts of Iraq, where Sunni insurgents post warnings against participating in elections and threaten to hit polling stations with car bombs, the choice facing citizens is whether to vote at all. But in the relatively safe Shia south, the main question is not whether to vote, but how: must a good Shia vote for the “clerics' list” or can pragmatism can justify other choices? (Financial Times)
For almost a week, nearly half of Baghdad has been without water, thanks to what the government says is an insurgent attack on one of its water mains. Coming at the height of campaigning for January 30 parliamentary elections, the crisis has fed cynicism and reduced confidence in the administration of Iyad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister. The water crisis, which US sources say has cut supplies by 30 to 40 per cent and left neighbourhoods in the south and west of the city entirely dry, comes on top of an acute petrol shortage that has forced motorists to queue for up to 12 hours, as well as chronic power cuts. (Financial Times)
A Southern Baptist chaplain stationed in Iraq has requested special prayer for U.S. troops involved in the historic democratic elections scheduled Jan. 30 in that country. "Our troops will be delivering the voting machines and ballots to villages and cities throughout Iraq and are prime targets for the insurgents. Encourage your friends and family members and those within our churches to pray specifically for our soldiers and the electoral process," Capt. Lyle Schackelford asked in an e-mail to friends and family members. (BP News)
Press release: Public attitudes toward the upcoming elections in Iraq are decidedly mixed, according to a new Harris Poll. Only a third (34%) of the U.S. public believes the situation in Iraq will improve after the elections, and less than a third (28%) believes that the elections will lead to a reasonably free and democratic system of government. Less than a quarter (24%) of the public thinks that Iraq will be a model which will help spread freedom and democracy in the Middle East. And less than one in five believes that the elections will enable most U.S. troops to leave Iraq in the next year (18%), or that there will be a reduction in the number of attacks on U.S. troops there (17%).
Amir Taheri: Iraq Election: Wider Significance. Talk to Iraqis on any subject these days and you are likely to hear one word: ba’ad! This is short for the phrase “ba’ad al-intikhabat” which means “after the elections.” Weddings are postponed until after the elections, as are business contracts, poetry recitals, the opening of new plays, the start of the football season, and, of course, the rebuilding of towns and villages wrecked by months of insurgency. Also put on hold are big projects financed by the $18 billion US aid package and more than $6 billion pledged by Europe, Japan and the Arab states. [...] (Arab News)
Today, we visited the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, Duhok Governorate Bureau and met with manager Mr. Bayar Tahir Duski. He was very busy during our Q and A session which was interrupted many times because he was working intensively and other queries during this interview. (Friends of Democracy)
Violence will not stop poll, says UN official. Staff face death and intimidation but preparations for huge logistical challenge of Iraq elections go ahead. (The Guardian [UK])
Underfunded parties fight to be heard before elections. The National Democratic Party in Iraq has fought for six decades against various tyrannical regimes. It has voiced a tolerant, grass-roots democratic vision for unifying the country. It has leaders who stuck it out instead of fleeing into exile. It also has virtually no chance when citizens go to the polls on Jan. 30. (Boston Globe)
The commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division predicted Thursday insurgent attacks will "settle down a bit" after Iraq holds elections Jan. 30, though he added his deploying troops will be ready if violence After the Election, It Won't Get Easiercontinues to escalate. (AP via Mercury News)
Chilean Senator Sergio Paez, president of the Inter-Parliamentarian Union (IPU), will participate as observer in the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq. (XINHUA online)
BusinessWeek: After the Election, It Won't Get Easier. Despite continued violence, Iraq's planned Jan. 30 election looks set to occur. It's unlikely to be either the decisive turning point the Bush Administration once hoped for or the unmitigated disaster critics predict. Instead, this vote at best will be a step on the difficult road toward creating a viable, self-governing country.
Blog Belmont Club: The Lost Elections. Blogger Wretchard responds to an article in The Nation [previously linked].
Letter sent to The Guardian: Iraq elections are not free. Iraq is being denied free and fair elections, after enduring decades of Saddam's brutal dictatorship. The US and British occupation governments have engineered a process for reproducing the US-appointed Iraqi interim government to prolong the occupation and incite sectarian and ethnic conflicts.
An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey. The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months. (Washington Post)
United Nations diplomats are warning that Iraq's first democratic election will be held without wide-scale international monitoring. The UN says it cannot observe the January 30 poll because it played a role in setting up the elections, and no other international organisation has stepped in to offer assistance. (Financial Times)
Iraqi blogger Ali of Free Iraqi reports on the details of extensive polls of 300 Iraqi men and women regarding the upcoming Iraqi elections, along with analysis of the poll giving breakdowns by district.
The Nation: Iraq's Lost Elections. In the run-up to the January 30 election in Iraq, the prospects for a fair and credible outcome have steadily diminished. As Dexter Filkins of the New York Times reported, rather than the normal democratic ritual of voters and candidates, what Iraqis know is "a campaign in the shadows, where candidates are often too terrified to say their names. Instead of holding rallies, they meet voters in secret, if they meet them at all. Instead of canvassing for votes, they fend off death threats." Filkins further reported: "Of the 7,471 people who have filed to run, only a handful outside the relatively safe Kurdish areas have publicly identified themselves. The locations for the 5,776 polling places have not been announced, lest they become targets for attacks."
A rift emerged within Iraq's electoral commission today, as its spokesman refused to quit despite a board decision to scrap his job, just 10 days before the landmark January 30 vote. "In the light of the sensitive security and political situation, to preserve the credibility and transparency of the commission's work... and to guarantee its independence, the commission has decided to suppress the position of official spokesman until further notice," the commission said in a statement. (News Interactive [Australia])
Iraq's Minister for Provincial Affairs accused Iran of spreading its "sphere of influence" throughout Iraq, in preparation for the January 30th elections. "Many Iranians are producing fake Iraqi identity cards to be able to take part in the elections", Wa'el Abdol-Latif said, speaking to the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East) daily yesterday. In particular Abdol-Latif warned that the Iranian regime was becoming very influential in Basra. (Iran Focus)
Staff members of a group helping Iraqis register to vote in their homeland's upcoming elections were forced out of their suburban Chicago offices by village officials concerned about a possible attack on the building. The International Organisation for Migration plans to move its 15 paid workers to the northwest side of Chicago from Niles, said on Thursday Oliver Vick, who heads the organisation's local office. "We are having to move our offices, and we are moving to continue serving the Iraqi community in the best possible way," Vick said. Niles is a village north of the city. (Al Jazeera)
Sunni Vote Boycott May Not Hurt Community. There are no election posters anywhere in sight in Baghdad's Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah. Even when a single banner for a Sunni-led party was put up recently, local youths promptly hauled it down. Iraq's majority Shiites are embracing the Jan. 30 vote, which is expected to confirm their new status as the country's most politically powerful group. Many Sunni leaders want the vote postponed, and militant Sunni clerics are calling for a boycott. (AP)
Frank Devine: Elections in tough places give optimism a good name. (The Australian)
Spirit of America is attempting to create a network of bloggers in Iraq to provide grassroots information during the elections. [I wish I knew how to read Arabic -ed.]
Two Sunni Muslim organisations have agreed to take part in the local election in a single province despite their rejection of nationwide balloting for the new National Assembly. (The Age [Australia])
Fact sheet issued by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad outlining the Transitional Administrative Law’s criteria for candidacy to Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly and the timeline for the Assembly to complete its work in drafting a constitution. (US Dept. of State)
The January 30 elections in Iraq are only the first step in an extended process of establishing an effective, functional state with a government that enjoys broad popular legitimacy, according to Phebe Marr, author of The Modern History of Iraq and senior fellow at the United States Institute for Peace. (US Dept. of State)
David Limbaugh: Iraq democracy naysayers. Far be it from me to accuse the mainstream media of rooting for failure in the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections, but their reporting sometimes makes you wonder. (Washington Times)
Austin Bay: Saddam Hussein's henchmen are already casting their votes in this month's Iraqi elections -- with bombs, kidnapping and murder as their ballots. This antidemocratic campaign has deep and dirty pockets: billions skimmed from Saddam's extortion, theft and smuggling schemes. The illicit money stash pays for terror and civil war -- blood money that spills more blood.
Iraqi blogger Omar of Iraq The Model posts pictures of the election posters in Baghdad.
