Politicians’ broken promises blamed for significant
drop in election participation.
March
18, 2010
Growing disillusionment with politics explained the
fall in voter turnout in the recent parliamentary
election, according to locals and analysts
interviewed by IWPR.
Turnout in the March 7 ballot was 62 per cent, a
sharp drop from the 76 per cent who voted in the
December 2005 assembly poll, when Iraq’s conflict
was entering its bloodiest phase.
The lowest provincial turnout in 2005 – 65 per cent
in Diwaniya – was still higher than this year’s
average nationwide figure.
Iraq is much calmer today than it was in 2005, but
in the run-up to the vote, many observers had feared
that the renewed threat of insurgent attack might
deter voters.
Early on election day, nearly 40 people were killed
in sporadic violence, mostly in Baghdad. In the
bloodiest attack during the week preceding the vote,
more than 30 people were killed by bombers in the
restive city of Baquba, north of the capital.
However, interviews by IWPR-trained reporters
nationwide have revealed that Iraqis who ignored
this election did so mostly out of indifference or
cynicism - not fear.
“I didn’t benefit from the last election and I won’t
benefit from this one,” said Hasan Mohammed Shaheed,
a farmer from Diwaniya in southern Iraq.
“Our leaders call for change, justice and equality
but they stick to the same programme, ignoring the
poor,” he said. “This poll is a game played by
politicians and that’s why I decided not to take
part this time.”
Aksan Mohammed, a housewife from the volatile
province of Diyala, north of Baghdad, said she was
tired of nepotism and of leaders who “swore at each
other on the TV screen” while ignoring mounting
tensions in the region.
“We see the same faces who won local elections
running in the parliamentary election,” she added,
referring to provincial council poll last year.
“Given that they were elected to the province,www.ekurd.netwhy
do they want to leave for parliament in Baghdad? Who
will take their place here – their brother or
cousin?”
Jawdi Abdul Amir, an unemployed man from the Shia
holy city of Najaf, said he had not voted because he
had lost faith in the candidates.
“What did they achieve for the youth?” he asked. “I
don’t know how to feed my family. You want me to
vote for those who have no mercy for me?”
Participation in the latest poll was nonetheless
praised by leaders in the United States and the
European Union, with foreign observers noting that
the turnout – though lower than before – was still
greater than in many western democracies.
Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan saw the highest turnout
with 80 per cent, while in Maysan in south-east Iraq
just 50 per cent cast their vote.
As the worst fighting between Sunni and Shia Arabs
is now seemingly over, sectarian rivalries played a
relatively secondary role in the latest election,
with most voters more concerned with the need for
better governance.[See Everyday Demands Drown Out
Sectarianism, ICR No. 327, 11-Mar-10]
“Citizens are losing faith in the political class,”
Tarek al-Maamuri, a commentator with the independent
newspaper, Al-Mada, said. “The government’s neglect
[of public services] has fed disappointment and
frustration in many provinces.”
Abdul-Jabbar al-Hadithi, a political science
professor at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University, said
many Iraqis had given up on politicians because of
their failure to improve utilities or fully stamp
out violence.
“A great number of voters were angry at the
government and we should not be surprised that they
did not vote,” he said.
The analysts agreed that protracted political feuds
and unfulfilled reconstruction promises had
contributed to the fall in turnout.
Another possible factor is that many interviewees
said they had been unable to vote because their
names were not on the voters’ rolls. Experts said
those displaced by sectarian violence since 2005
were more likely to find themselves excluded in this
manner. The Iraqi electoral commission told IWPR it
did not have any figures for people turned away from
polling stations.
Widespread suspicion of fraud in previous elections
may also have contributed to the lower levels of
participation this year, according to Hadithi, the
professor at Mustansiriya University.
“People believe the election is merely a show and
there is a conspiracy being devised behind the
scenes. For them, rigging and fraud are inevitable
in elections,” he said.
Nazdar, a woman from the northern Kurdish city of
Erbil who did not want her full name revealed, said
she had not voted because she felt certain the
results would be manipulated.
“The elections are not transparent,” she said. “It
is all arranged between politicians. Believe me,
even though I didn’t go to vote, someone else would
have voted for me, using my name.”
This report was compiled by IWPR-trained
reporters Ali Kareem in Baghdad, Ali Al-Mutalibi in
Najaf, Ali Mohammad in Baquba, Emad al-Khuzaei in
Diwaniya and Salam al-Dulaimi in Kirkuk and Nabaz
Jalal in Erbil.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
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