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AUSTRALIA's
90,000-strong Iraqi population have begun
registering for the first democratic elections in
their homeland for half a century, in one of the
biggest ever expatriate voting programs.
The registration is the first wave of a week-long
program that will see tens of thousands of emigre
Iraqis around the world sign for the landmark
elections, with up to 40,000 expected to register in
Australia alone.
The first exile to register was a 69-year-old
Kurdish widow living in Sydney, Nassima Barzani, a
refugee whose late husband was a bodyguard to
Mustafa Barzani, one of the first leaders of the
Kurdish nationalist movement.
She was followed by the head of the Shiite community
in Australia, Ayatollah al-Sheikh Mohammad Hussein
al-Ansari, the representative of spiritual leader
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
"She wants to be a symbol for democracy and Iraqi
women and Kurdish women," Ms Barzani's son Fkri
said.
"She wants to be a symbol for the Peshmerga," he
added, referring to the Kurdish separatist guerrilla
fighters of which the Barzani clan have been leading
members.
Ms Barzani has led a life that has been largely a
living hell. Thousands of members of the nationalist
Barzani clan disappeared in the 1980s, in a
crackdown by dictator Saddam Hussein targeting males
aged over 13.
Among them were around 20 members of Ms Barzani's
family, who were mostly taken to southern Iraq in
the 1983 crackdown and are presumed to be dead.
She had already left for Iran in 1975, where her
husband died of cancer and where she survived with
her three sons despite an abortive attempt to return
to Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.
Amid hopes that the US victory in Kuwait heralded
the liberation of Iraq, they attempted to return,
only to be caught for months in refugee camps on the
border and eventually forced to return to Iran.
The family gained refugee status in Australia in
1995 and have lived in Australia since, among the
country's estimated 90,000-strong Iraqi community,
most of whom originally came as refugees.
Asked why the family had chosen to vote in Iraqi
parliamentary elections, despite their background as
supporters of an independent Kurdistan, Mr Barzani
said they hoped that through debate in the new
parliament, Kurdistan would be able to gain the
freedom it wanted as an autonomous entity within
Iraq.
"After this election Iraq should be a democratic
country," Mr Barzani said, adding that he did not
expect changes overnight.
Expatriates have a week to register to vote for the
landmark polls in 14 countries that have concluded
agreements with the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM), which is organising the overseas
voting.
They will then have three days to cast their
ballots, from January 28 to January 30, when Iraq
itself goes to the polls.
No one is sure how many people will turn out to vote
but the IOM says that 2.5 million ballots have been
ordered for the process.
Many expatriate Iraqis have enthused about the
chance to have a say in their country's future.
"There is enormous interest. Iraqi communities from
all around the country are contacting us," said
Stephen Lennon, IOM program manager in Washington.
"A lot of people are happy they will finally be
given a chance to vote.
"Those who are disappointed that they have to travel
a long distance understand the constraints ... This
is arguably the largest out-of-country voting ever
to have taken place."
In Australia, there have been some protests as only
Melbourne and Sydney and the remote town of
Shepparton have been equipped with polling stations,
leaving the 9000-strong Iraqi community around Perth
a journey of at least 2750km to cast their ballots.
The Geneva-based IOM is also organising the
expatriate vote in Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Syria,
Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the
United States.
The organisation has in the past organised the
voting for a number of sensitive polls, such as in
Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo and East Timor.
Expatriates will vote only for a 275-seat
Transitional National Assembly tasked with drawing
up a new post-Saddam Hussein constitution.
Inside Iraq, voters will also elect 18 provincial
councils and a Kurdish regional parliament.
Host countries are encouraging a strong turnout
abroad – Iraqis voting in Jordan have been assured
there will be "no legal repercussions" from the
authorities if they show up to vote with expired
residency permits.
Ahmad Samarrai, a Dubai-based Iraqi economist
advising the IOM, said the important thing was "to
give Iraqis who wish to vote the opportunity and
means to do so... and to ensure that the voting is
fair and transparent".
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au
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