Iraqis in U.S. ready to cast (inconvenient) votes
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Arizona Daily Star
By Gillian Flaccus
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
IRVINE, Calif. - Iraqis in Arizona won't have to ignore death threats to cast ballots in their homeland's election.
They must simply make a 400-plus mile trip to the nearest polling place in Irvine to register this week, and then repeat the process to vote at the end of the month.
That didn't deter Hussan Al Taee, who woke before the crack of dawn and drove seven hours from Phoenix to register to vote in an Iraqi election for the first time.
Al Taee, 37, of Phoenix, was among thousands of Iraqi expatriates who showed up at polling stations in 14 countries from Australia to the United States on Monday to register to vote in their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years.
"I get happy and my family's happy because they come for voting. For many years we don't do voting in Iraq. Saddam Hussein, he took all the voting," said Al Taee, a Shiite Muslim who said he fled Iraq 10 years ago and now owns a smoke shop in Phoenix.
He arrived with his wife, 1-year-old son and cousin to add his name to the list of some 35,000 Iraqi immigrants expected to register at the polling station set up at a decommissioned Marine base in Southern California.
In the United States, registration also was taking place in Detroit, Nashville, Tenn., Chicago and Washington, D.C.
There is no organized voter drive among Tucson's small Iraqi community, but at least two ethnic Iraqi groups in the Phoenix area are renting buses or vans for the trips to California.
Younan Jasim of the Assyrian Democratic Movement said he expects up to 40 percent participation in the elections among the Christian Iraqi community in the Phoenix area.
His group expects to fill two 52-seat buses on Saturday and another one Sunday for the drive to the former El Toro Marine Base in Irvine, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Others will be driving over in private vehicles, he said.
Jasim knows whom he's voting for: "list No. 204" - a slate of candidates from the Christian Assyrian and Chaldean communities in Iraq, who view seats on the national assembly as critical for representation of their minority in the country's new government.
"All the minorities, all the ethnicities have the right to live in the Iraqi community. We want our delegates to be in the parliament," he said.
The Kurdish community has a similar reason for voting. It wants to ensure that the new constitution preserves the autonomy of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where ousted dictator Saddam waged his most deadly genocidal campaigns.
The Kurdish autonomous region has enjoyed stability and a democratically elected government since allied forces began enforcing a "no-fly" zone there after the first Persian Gulf War.
Amed Mamoud of Tucson said his relatives in the region's capital of Sulimaniyah are predicting 95 percent participation in the vote at the end of the month, up from 90 percent in the most recent regional elections.
Mamoud, owner of Sunrise Cafe, doesn't expect that big a turnout from Arizona's Kurds and doesn't know if he, his three brothers and a nephew who live here will make the trip to Phoenix, where the Kurdish community of about 250 is arranging transportation with assistance from the Kurdish government.
"If voting was in Phoenix, everybody would go. To make it twice, as working people, to Los Angeles, two days each time, it's not practical," he said.
If he does make it, he knows how he'll vote, he said.
"The Kurds, both major political parties, are on a ticket with the Assyrians and Turkemen, No. 130," he said.
Mohammed Shaalan of Tucson also knows how he'd vote, though he, too, hasn't decided whether he can make it to California. A filmmaker from Baghdad, Shaalan said he's researched the slates of candidates on the Internet and he's chosen "a group that doesn't look for religion or race or anything like that."
Shaalan said most Iraqis don't group themselves according to religion, and he blamed the announced boycott of elections in the Sunni Triangle of Iraq on "Saddam supporters and terrorists who came from outside Iraq."
Shaalan and other Arab Iraqis contacted in Tucson said there is no organized effort to turn out the vote here, but he plans to call a Kurdish friend to see if he can hitch a ride from Phoenix to Irvine. "We are all looking for the same goal," he said.
The run-up to registration has been plagued by confusion among potential voters, who have struggled to find out where, when or how to vote - and whether they are even eligible.
The seven-day registration period ends Sunday. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until the Jan. 30 election in Iraq.
Voter registration is open to those 18 and older who are present or former Iraqi citizens, those who were born in Iraq and those whose fathers are Iraqi. Voters must have documents to prove they are eligible.
Voters are being asked to pick members of the 275-member Assembly, which will have a one-year mandate. Its responsibilities will include electing a president and two deputy presidents, and drafting Iraq's Constitution.
The Southern California location is the only one in the western United States.
"I think we're going to lose some voters, but we're lucky to have an office here at all," said Basim Ridha Alhussaini, an Iraqi expatriate responsible for training some 320 poll workers in Southern California.
Other nations hosting overseas polling are Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Eligible Iraqis abroad are estimated to number 1.2 million.
In a related development, a private security company staffed by former elite U.S. Special Forces soldiers will provide security at polling places in the United States for people voting in Iraq's election.
Though U.S. officials said they were unaware of any specific threats to Iraqis voting in the United States or attempts to intimidate them, the hiring of Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group Inc. of Minden, Nev., suggested that there's concern about possible attacks or attempts to intimidate voters.
In Iraq, insurgents have been waging an increasingly bloody campaign of suicide bombings, assassinations and intimidation aimed at crippling the election.
? Star reporter Tom Beal contributed to this report. |
