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Iraq-Kurdistan: Voting process unfair at
best
13.3.2010
By Ardalan Hardi
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ekurd.net |
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March
13, 2010
As I have done in the two previous Iraqi elections,
I flew from Denver to San Diego to cast my vote. A
month before the election date, I called a friend of
mine that I visit while I am in San Diego to see if
he knew where the voting location would be and
whether anything had changed regarding voter
requirements. He was not aware of any changes, but
thought voting would be in the same location as the
last time.
In previous elections all we had to provide was an
American passport showing our original place of
birth which verified we were from Iraq and we could
cast our vote. To my surprise, when I went to vote
this year, the electoral commission representatives
refused to let me participate. They told me that in
addition to my US passport I would also need to show
an official Iraqi document proving the province of
my birth. I tried to argue that I have been in the
US since 1976 and a US citizen since the early 80s.
I have lived in this country for over 30 years and
do not have any official Iraqi documents, I stressed
that I had voted in the last two elections and the
passport I had provided in the past was sufficient
documentation. My plea fell on deaf ears. I asked to
talk to the person in charge, and the tall, slim,
gentlemen in charge of the voting process seemed
eager to help me. His name was Shakir Hansih was the
polling station manager, I pointed to the stamps on
my passport that clearly show I have visited
Kurdistan on many different occasions. I explained
the only reason I would go back so many times was to
visit my family. At first he agreed,www.ekurd.netand
I was elated. I then waited in a line for
approximately a quarter of an hour then he came back
and told me that I could not vote. He offered no
explanation of what made him change his mind. I told
him I thought it was absolutely ridiculous to expect
me to still have an Iraqi document after 34 years in
exile. Very courteously, he apologized, and said
there was nothing he could do for me.
I find it ironic that I live in a country were the
citizens are encouraged to vote. In fact the US
government and many nonprofit organizations go to
extreme measures to advertise on Radio and TV so
Americans can have a better turn out on Election Day
while some Iraqis go to a great deal of personal
expense and then are deprived of the most elementary
form of freedom - the right to vote.
I still did not give up. I waited while a few
Kurdish friends pleaded my case but all was to no
avail. Interestingly, my friend noticed that most of
the people in charge of the voting stations were
Sunni Arabs and all of them were wearing the old
Batth flag on their collar. The other thing he
noticed was that it appeared the only people being
held back from voting were Kurds. It seemed like
everyone else had no problem.
My friend, who has been a KDP supporter all of his
life, noticed my profound disappointment and said I
should not worry, and that he would give me his
vote. He knew that I was a supporter of the Gorran
List. I didn’t think he was serious. But he came out
of the voting booth and pulled out his cell phone to
show me a picture of the ballot to prove he voted
for Gorran. I was shocked and proud that he is my
friend.
After I got back to Denver, another friend of mine
who was with us during the whole voting fiasco
called and said that an Arab friend she worked with
told her many Sunni Arabs had the same problem and
did not have the proper papers, but they still got
to vote and most of them were instructed to vote as
though they are from Kirkuk even though they were
born in the different part of Iraq.
One other point that needs to be made is at the
voting station in El Cajon, which is northeast of
San Diego, 65 people were hired by the electoral
commission to assist with the voting process, and
only four of them were Kurds. Out of the four, not
one of them was assigned the position of verifying
the legitimacy of paper work. So much for checks and
balances…... The Kurds were assigned the job of
directing people to the queue.
Coming back from California I realized:
1- KRG representatives in the US did a poor job of
informing their constituencies about the
documentation requirements needed to vote in this
election. I am sure they probably tried, but
whatever they did obviously did not work. They did
not do a good job of getting the word out. As a
result of their mishandling this critical
information, I, along with many other Kurds did not
get to vote. I also blame myself for not researching
the facts more thoroughly before hand. As the old
saying goes “God gives every bird it's food, but He
does not throw it into its nest”.
2- It appears some attempts were made to manipulate
the voting process especially when it came to
Kirkuk. It seemed discrimination played a role in
who had the right to vote or not.
3- Iraq will probably never be the secular
Democratic country that the US government expects it
to be. Iraqis will most likely vote along the
Religious and Ethnic lines until the mistrust that
exists among the different factions dissipates and
the education levels are raised.
Albeit I am very disappointed in being denied the
right to vote, I am still hopeful that the system
will gradually improve. Thanks to President Bush I
am very pleased that we Kurds, Arabs and Turks,
whether Shiite, Sunni or Christian, have the
opportunity to vote. It is my hope that by the next
election more fair voting practices are in place to
allow all Iraqis the privilege of casting their long
awaited votes.
In closing, I would like to thank my friend for his
wisdom, graciousness, warm hospitality and
camaraderie. He reminded me of a long forgotten
quote,
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but
only true friends will leave footprints in your
heart”.
The one thing I hope all of my countrymen will take
heed to is, if our assumption is correct, that
whichever political party is in office is working to
promote our cause, then it is ultimately more
important that our vote is cast rather than who our
vote is cast for.
Ardalan Hardi is Director & Managing Editor of
Kurdish Aspect. You may reach the author via email
at ardalan (at)kurdishaspect.com. Article submitted
to ekurd.net by Ardalan Hardi.
Copyright © 2010 ekurd.net. All
rights reserved.
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