|
While
the world's attention has been focused on the
devastation that has followed the Asian tsunami, the
chaos and violence has continued to build ahead of
the January elections in Iraq. Gregor Mayer reports
on the role played Germany in training election
observers for the poll.
Iraq may be threatening to sink into a quagmire of
violence and chaos, but the interim government of
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is determined the
country's first ever free elections will proceed as
planned on 30 January.
And as campaigning officially opened, Allawi's drive
to hold the elections on schedule was getting much
indirect support from members of Iraq's civil
groups, which are now slowly flourishing after
decades of dictatorship.
Human rights activists, young people desperate for a
better future and women struggling for their rights
in an Islamic society see the elections as a great
opportunity to realise democracy in Iraq, and many
of these supporters are eager to participate in the
elections as independent observers.
That, says 27-year-old Sartip Ali Mohammed, is the
only way to ensure the purity and integrity of the
proceedings.
Mohammed, from the Kurdish region of Suleimaniya and
leader of the Civic Development Organisation, a
campaign group for human rights, gender equality and
civic awareness, is just one of 120 Iraqis trained
in the practise of monitoring elections.
Since July the group have been training in Amman
under the guidance of Germany's Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
- a foundation set up back in 1925 as a political
legacy of Germany's first democratically elected
president, Friedrich Ebert, with the aim of
furthering political und social education.
Across seven colleges in the Jordanian capital
groups of 15 to 20 Iraqi students learn the finer
points of international election standards and new
Iraqi electoral law. Then in role play classes they
practise their new skills as election observers.
The training ended with a ceremony attended by two
representatives of the Iraqi election commission.
Gisela von Mutius, a Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
representative in Amman, says the students were very
eager to learn. They took the opportunity to develop
networks and consulted online with their German
trainers, a facility which will continue to be
offered after graduation.
Some of the foundation's graduates are now
voluntarily training more observers back home in
Iraq. Mohammed, from the Civic Development
Organisation says the end plan is to have 500
election observers throughout the country.
But what about the violence and the threatened
election boycott called by radical Shiite Muslim
cleric Moqtada al Sadr?
A voting abstention by Iraq's 20 percent Sunni
population would only strengthen existing ethnic
tensions.
But not all Sunni Muslims plan to boycott the
elections, says Nasrin Nadji, a Shiite from Karbala
and a member of the Iraqi Council for Peace and
Solidarity.
The registration of the Iraqi Islam Party (IIP), the
country's main Sunni party, brings a clear Sunni
force to the table.
Nadji has little understanding for the armed
insurgents operating in the so-called Sunni triangle
between Baghdad, Ramadi and Mosul.
"That is pure terror, carried out by those, who have
held power in the country since 1921 and who can now
not come to terms with their loss of prominence," he
argues.
Copyright Expatica 2005
http://www.expatica.com
Top |
®