On the road to a new democracy?
For a day, hope overcame fear. Now, Iraqis ponder the consequences of their votes
BAGHDAD--With most of Iraq under a security lockdown for last week's landmark election, Radio Dijla, the capital's popular all-talk station, was one of the few safe havens where Iraqis could hear and join a vigorous, public debate. Voters traded stirring tales of bravery, and many spoke longingly of a peaceful future. One Iraqi told the show's host that he was so inspired by the discourse that he put his fear of attacks aside to go to the polls. "When we heard this large crowd of people calling you and [sounding] very happy, I decided to go, and take my family, and through your radio, I call on all the hesitant people like me: Go and vote."
For one day at least, many Iraqis caught a glimpse of a more hopeful future for their beleaguered nation, which took a small, but crucial, step toward an elected government by holding a nationwide election for a 275-person transitional national assembly. Hesitatingly at first, then in larger numbers after the smoke of early-morning attacks subsided, Iraqis hit the emptied streets to cast their ballots in Iraq's first real parliamentary election in 50 years. At a voting station in the largely Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Jadriya, one woman ululated in joy, or perhaps as a triumphant war cry. Another housewife, a Sunni, was defiant: "I left my house because I wanted to breathe the air of freedom for the first time in a lot of years."
Those who voted talked about reclaiming some measure of Iraqi pride and, perhaps more important, about taking a brave stand against the murderous insurgency. Indeed, despite scattered attacks and retribution threats against voters, whose fingers were coated in indelible purple ink to show they had voted, Iraqis appeared to have turned out in somewhat larger-than-expected numbers. "It is a big message to the insurgents that people wanted to go forward with the political process," says Saad Abdul Razak, a secular Sunni candidate, who two weeks prior to the elections was in the camp of those calling for postponement.
With the laborious vote counting process underway, the consequences of a divisive election started to emerge. While Shiites exulted in the strength of their newfound suffrage, some Kurds renewed calls for independence for the predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. More worrying, much of the Sunni minority, at the zenith of power under Saddam Hussein's oppressive rule, sat out election day--whether in protest, because of indecision, or simply because the polling centers in their restive neighborhoods were closed. This threatens to leave them on the sidelines of Iraq's next government and the process of writing a new constitution, both of which could only serve to increase Sunni alienation.
Voices. Iraq's neighbors cautiously blessed the election, with a few monarchs and autocrats going so far as to tout the virtues of a free and fair democratic process on Arab satellite TV. Most were quick to warn that a lot remains to be seen before declaring this experiment a success, specifically how Sunnis in Iraq will be treated by the new Shiite-dominated parliament. "We hope the government does not ignore those who didn't vote but supports them," says Jordan's foreign minister, Hani Mulki, referring to the Sunnis. "Their voice must be heard," treating them as if they are a "shadow Congress."
advertisement
