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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Tens of thousands of Iraqi
immigrants across the United States who may be
eligible to vote in their homeland's election this
month are finding that confusion is the
front-runner.
What began as enthusiasm for the absentee balloting
has given way to frustration for Iraqi expatriates
who must contend with unanswered questions of where,
when or how to vote -- and whether they are even
eligible.
With less than two weeks before voter registration
begins, U.S. organizers say they still haven't
decided on the exact locations of up to 25 polling
places in the five cities selected to host the vote:
Detroit, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Nashville and
Los Angeles.
Getting to the polls is yet another challenge.
Those who live in New York City, Phoenix and Dallas
-- other cities with large Iraqi populations -- will
have to travel hundreds of miles to appear in person
at polling centers twice in two weeks. Registration
is Jan. 17-23 and voting is Jan. 28-30.
"Iraqis are aware of the elections, but they might
not be aware of the process and registering," said
Sayed Mostafa Al Qazwini, imam of the Islamic
Educational Center in Orange County, Calif. "They
don't have enough information and there's not much
time left."
Election organizers readily acknowledge problems and
say they're doing their best with little lead time
to rally about 90,000 Iraqi immigrants and their
family members.
The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq in
Baghdad authorized an out-of-country vote in
November and enlisted the non-governmental
International Organization of Migration to organize
it.
Organizers concede they're off to a slow start and
say they're struggling to get timely information
from Iraqi officials.
"Why they decided at such a late hour to hold
out-of-country voting, I couldn't tell you," said
Jeremy Copeland, who arrived at his Washington,
D.C., office three weeks ago to oversee voting in
the United States. "The bottom line is, in two weeks
from today, we're going to be opening up those
polling centers and we have to be ready."
Iraq's electoral commission has set aside up to $92
million for overseas voting. Though no one is sure
how many overseas Iraqis will actually cast ballots,
organizers say they're prepared to count up to 1
million votes from 14 countries. The other nations
are Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Syria and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey is
expected to be added.
The challenges facing Iraqi expatriates pale next to
the bombings and death threats in Iraq ahead of the
Jan. 30 election for an assembly that will draft a
constitution.
But for many Iraqi immigrants in the United States,
any obstacle is frustration enough if it prevents
them from voting in the first independent election
in Iraq in nearly 50 years -- a contest in which
dozens of parties will field more than a thousand
candidates.
The biggest problem, Iraqi community leaders around
the United States say, is a lack of basic
information.
"We're just not sure about it right now," said
Mohammed Albadran, a spokesman for the Iraqi House
of Nashville, a Tennessee nonprofit for Iraqis and
Kurds.
Many overseas Iraqis are uncertain who can vote and
what documents they need to register.
Iraqi-born adults and their children born after Dec.
31, 1986, can vote with two forms of identification.
The identification does not have to be from Iraq,
but at least one piece must prove Iraqi birth.
Second-generation Iraqi-Americans who have only
Iraqi-born mothers -- and not fathers -- are
excluded under Iraqi election law, Copeland said.
Al Qazwini, the imam from Orange County, worried
that his 40-year-old expired Iraqi passport wouldn't
be accepted. The only other Iraqi document he has,
he said, is his birth certificate.
"I know many of the Iraqis who lived in exile, like
me, for the last 30 years have invalid
documentation," he said. "We would have thought that
the interim government would have made it easy for
us."
In some cities, election staff are just now arriving
and starting to organize town hall meetings.
Joseph Kassab, president of the U.S. branch of the
Chaldean National Congress in Detroit, said his
group petitioned organizers for polls in San Diego,
the city with the third-largest population of Iraqi
immigrants after Detroit and Chicago, according to
data from the Washington-based Migration Policy
Institute.
The request was turned down for lack of time,
Copeland said.
He acknowledged that the requirement that voters
show up twice in person could exclude hundreds of
those eligible to cast ballots, but said the rule
was necessary to prevent fraud.
"We have no voter lists," he said, "and not everyone
has all the right documentation."
Others noted the registration period conflicted with
the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest
places. Al Qazwini said he will miss the
registration period because he will be on the Hajj.
Dr. Ridha Hajjar, the imam at the Ahlul Beyt Mosque
in Pomona, Calif., also will miss the election due
to the Hajj. He said many overseas Iraqis asked for
permission to vote by e-mail or by Internet, but
were denied.
"A number of us will be missing the chance to vote,"
said Hajjar, 64. "I feel sad, but hopefully this is
the first vote and there will be another one a year
from now. It's a process, a step on the road."
Associated Press Writers Colin Fly in Nashville,
Tenn., and David Runk in Detroit contributed to this
report.
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