Jordan; Iraqi exile ballots; Orwell
Tuesday, that well-known "democrat" Jordan's King Abdullah (not!) railed vociferously against Iranian influence in the upcoming Iraqi elections. Yesterday (or so), the Iraqi newspaper Ad-dustour reported that
- Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has decided to make the Jordanian capital Amman the place to sort out the absentee ballots of Iraqi expatriate voters. Hence, ballot boxes will be transported to Amman for this purpose.
My question is, "Why should anyone particularly trust this process of conveying all the Iraqi exiles' votes to Amman and then counting them there?"
Btw, I'm finding it frustratingly difficult to find precise info on how, exactly, the promised provisions for including Iraqi exiles in the voting process will actually be implemented-- apart from the above.
For example, in how many different places around the world can they cast their votes? (In South Africa's landmark 1994 election, exiles could vote through their local SA consulates.) What are the rules for determining their eligibility? Roughly how many people might we be talking about?
Anyone who could point me to any answers there, please do so...
Juan Cole has launched some of his usual trenchant commentary at the anti-Iranian pronunciamentos voiced by the Abdullah and his fellow Sunni-Arab head of state, the usually supine Ghazi Yawar of Iraq. Juan even has a multi-colored map of how scarily (from Abdallah's viewpoint) Shi-ite-dominated the Middle East might become, if the present trends toward Shi-ite empowerment in Iraq are not resisted.
This whole set of arguments--whether voiced by Abdallah or by the Bushites--that seek to demonize and excoriate Iran's (and Syria's) alleged interventions in Iraq as "illegitimate foreign intervention" in Iraq's affairs embody a breathtaking amount of sheer gall, not to mention chutzpah.
"Foreign intervention"???
What the heck is the US government involved in in Iraq, on a massive and continuing basis? (Involved in, let us remember, as a result of a war that had no basis whatsoever in international law.)
"Foreign intervention"?
What the heck were the Jordanians involved in last year when they were grooming a Hashemite cousin of Abdullah's to return to Baghdad and start talking about a restoration of the Hashemite so-called "monarchy" through which Britain ruled Iraq in the middle of the last century?
Of course, this whole business of the US occupation forces in Iraq trying to claim "indigenous authenticity" for themselves and their (Iraqi and other) allies, especially by immediately dubbing anyone who opposes them there as "anti-Iraqi" is a continuing big theme of US propaganda. For example, when they routinely describe the people fighting against them as "anti-Iraqi forces" (AIF).
This, despite the fact that the proportion of Iraqis among the insurgent fighters is far, far higher-- maybe 95%?-- than the proportion of Iraqis in the pro-US, pro-Allawi coalition of fighters (maybe 20%?)...
In this, as in so much of the relentless, logic-bending propaganda spewed out by the Bushites, the "Ministry of Peace" and "Ministry of Truth" of George Orwell's 1984 have quite clearly come to life.
At this website, http://iraquna.blogspot.com, you will find a concise explanation of the Sunni-Shiite relationship. It's clearly not as dismal as it's made out to be by certain foreign elements.
Here's a quote:
"..As you can see, Shiite grievances are genuine but Sunni dominance of government was not through armed Sunni-Shiite conflict as has been repeatedly suggested. It was mostly foreign interference and influence first and then power and politics and power-politics throughout the past century of modern Iraqi history.."
I have Iraqi friends that have received registration forms. Their families in Iraq have mailed the forms to them. That's all I know so far.
Helena,
Hi from your husband's former student who's been stunningly out of touch and thinks about the long email I need to send him every time I read your blog. Now that I've written in, I might actually get to it this weekend :) Anyway, according to the IFES folks, there are about 1.5 mil expat voters expected. The Int'l Org. for Migration is running the expat voting, like they did for Afghanistan, and they currently have MOUs with relevant officials in 14 countries, and they're shooting for more. Don't know all of them, but it seems to be Mid-East, Europe, and US thus far. I am not sure exactly how eligibility will be determined, but it looks like it will go through the embassy in that country. You don't have to be a resident of a country conducting elections to vote in that country, either. Hope this helps.