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Elections are not a
perfect science. Around the world, conspiracy
theories cloud the results of nearly every election.
Whether we vote by punch-card, optical-scanner or
touch-screen, the winners always feel validated
while the losers criticize the system.
Many feel that the credibility problem won't be
resolved until the federal government mandates some
kind of nationwide system of voting standards. But
most of us fear that Washington's hand on our ballot
boxes would destroy our tradition of local control
over elections, a process that has been in effect
ever since the nation's birth.
Yet, with all our problems, America's elections seem
like a walk in the park when compared to the
problems that beset attempts at democratic elections
in Iraq and the Ukraine. Elections can be meaningful
only if the process starts with some kind of a list
of eligible voters, if the vote is cast in secret,
if the voter is able to make an independent choice,
and if the count is honest.
That is clearly not what took place in the Nov. 21
election in Ukraine. With 48 million residents in an
area the size of France, Ukraine is split between
its eastern and southern Russian-speaking industrial
areas that are still dominated by the former Soviet
Union, and its western areas that are anxious to get
away from Russian influence and join the European
Union.
Russia is hostile to a genuine democracy in Ukraine
because the oligarchs view it as a threat to the
KGB-dominated clique that now runs the country under
the stiff hand of Vladimir Putin.
Russia cannot afford to lose control in Ukraine nor
in the other countries that border southern Russia
-- Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
To lose control over this economic bloc could cost
Russia more than $10 billion a year.
Ukraine's economy is one of the fastest growing in
Europe, while its living standards are among the
worst. The heavy hand of mother Russia has tried to
take democracy away from the Ukrainan people.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainans protested the
outcome of its recent election, that seated
pro-Soviet Viktor Yanukovych and defeated
pro-western candidate Viktor Yushchenko, claiming
that the ballot boxes were stuffed. They were
successful; the Ukraine Supreme Court has ordered
new elections.
Iraq, too, presents a threat of interruption
to the status quo, an ousting of the Sunni minority
that dominated the country under the cruel fist of
Sadaam Hussein. The United States knows, in pushing
for a late January election, that the outcome will
favor the Shiite majority that has been suppressed
in Saddam's shadow for much of this century.
Unfortunately for the democratic process, individual
voters are not likely to express private opinions,
but are pledged to vote for the religious and ethnic
groups to which they belong. There are at least 17
different parties spread among the major religious
sects.
The Shiites represent about 60 percent of Iraq's
population, Sunnis represent about 20 percent and
the Kurds, who are somewhat pro-Sunni but mostly
fiercely independent with hopes for a separate state
of Kurdistan, are the remaining 20 percent.
The 12 million Iraqi citizens will vote for a
275-member national assembly and for 18 provincial
assemblies. The fact that the Shiite majority will
dominate the parliament is a forgone conclusion.
The Iraqi elections probably will demonstrate that
democracy isn't some sort of super-solvent used to
dissolve differences. The effort will succeed only
when the citizens are willing to consider their
options, to admit that there may be more than one
road to Mecca, and to accept personal responsibility
for themselves.
It may be, in both Iraq and Ukraine, that upcoming
elections won't instantly straighten out years of
ideological and political imbalance, but they are an
essential step in the process.
Hopefully, new elections will take place in Ukraine
before the end of December and in Iraq before the
end of January. Let the elections begin.
George Sjostrom is a Simi Valley freelance writer.
His column appears biweekly in The Star.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/
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