[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:15730] Questionable Voting Practices Reported in Iraq After Election

[Alfred Kagan]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Dana Lubow" <danalubow at hotmail.com>
> Date: February 2, 2005 11:39:51 PM CST
> To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
> Subject: [SRRTAC-L:15730] Questionable Voting Practices Reported in 
> Iraq After Election
> Reply-To: srrtac-l at ala.org
>
> Questionable Voting Practices Reported in Iraq After Election
> Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 05:04:41 +0200
>   From: Heikki Sipilä <heikki.sipila at saunalahti.fi>
>
> Baghdad, February 1 (RHC)-- Inter Press Service reports that Sunday's
> vote in Iraq, which has been praised by the George W. Bush
> administration in Washington, involved enticing people to voting
> stations with continued receipt of food rations.
>
> Correspondent Dahr Jamail wrote that a number of voters had told him
> that voting in Baghdad was linked with receipt of food rations, and
> that their names were marked on a list provided by the government
> agency that controls monthly food rations before they were allowed to
> vote. Names were checked off by the people responsible for the
> distribution of food rations in a district before he or she was
> allowed to vote. One student told Jamail that he was informed that his
> ration would be suspended if he did not vote.
>
> Many Iraqis have reported that they had to sign voter registration
> forms in order to pick up their food supplies. A 52-year-old garage
> owner, Amin Hajar, said he was required to sign a form stating that he
> had picked up his voter registration when he went for his food
> rations. He said he had no choice as his family would starve to death
> if he didn't receive such rations.
>
> Elsewhere, some residents of the city of Ramadi reported that they
> were pressured by US troops to vote. The soldiers, they said, used
> intimidation to get people to the voting centers.
>
> One critic pointed out that a real democracy requires an informed
> electorate. Acknowledging that many of those voting were very brave to
> do so -- whether or not they had been enticed to the polling stations
> -- they nonetheless were uninformed, he said, with many of them voting
> blind. Reportedly half or more voters believed they were voting for a
> president instead of the national assembly and almost none of the
> 7,700 candidates campaigned publicly or even announced their names due
> to assassination threats.
>
> *********
> The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations 
> establishes that all people have the right to self-determination and 
> national sovereignty.
>
> Dana Lubow
> L.A. Valley College Library
> Valley Glen, California 91401
> (818) 947-2766
>
>
>
Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliogrpaher and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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