In lieu of the Super Bowl, inexplicably put off for one more week, tomorrow is Iraqi Election Sunday. If I understand the process correctly, the assembly selected by proportional representation will select a "presidency council" which will in turn select a prime minister. The cynic in me notes that this format will certainly make it easier for the selection of the prime minister, who will have control over the military, to be manipulated by the United States or whomever else is able.
More disturbing are the hindrances to the democratic process that are occurring now, before this convoluted chain of popular representation is put into place. Aspiring politicians, aside from those already protected by the US, are in some cases too frightened to even announce their candidacy for fear of assassination. Setting aside the broader questions of security that this raises, how are citizens to make an informed decision without knowing, quite literally, who they are voting for? Furthermore, once these anonymous Iraqi founding fathers are elected, current conditions point to an inability to communicate with their constituents. Violence, in addition to scaring candidates away from the stump, could discourage voters from showing up in almost a quarter of Iraq by population.
Even the Kurds, who are for the most part enthusiastic about voting and about the Iraqi experiment in general, may be prevented from reaching the polls by the predictable, and therefore avoidable, onset of winter in Nothern Iraq. Hell, if elections had been held in this country last weekend, most of the east coast would have been left indoors. The rush to elections doesn't seem to be helping anything except PR in the US, and it is a reminder that so much of this Iraqi experiment has been rushed out the door before a plan could be properly established.
Speaking of the US, one place that the elections will go smoothly will be in this country, where at least 90,000 Iraqi-born immigrants will be eligible to vote (I say at least because in a fun sexist twist to this adventure, children of Iraqi-born men may vote from overseas as well). Almost 300,000 people have registered in 14 countries other than Iraq, which should serve to replace, say, the residents of Fallujah.
So now we wait and see what happens. How will the election go? Will the new assembly be pro-American? I find it most interesting that Bush has said that US troops will leave if the new Iraqi government asks them to do so. This seems rather unlikely, as the terrorists might win if we leave and then we're stuck in an occupied country just like... well, what is a good example of when the shell of a local government was wholly supported by US military power? If you believe the hype, it's looking like this election might go better than one 40 years ago, which would have been won by the communists, so it didn't happen. We're going to have an election at least, and as Donald Rumsfeld might say, some people aren't going to vote, and that's what freedom's all about. I wonder how the Iraqi opposition will react to the "you lost, get over it" signs.
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http://nonspecificcuriosity.blogspot.com/
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