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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (36483)	1/31/2005 12:46:20 PM
From: geode00	Respond to of 173976

WASHINGTON, January 30 -- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in Iraq's election despite an Islamic terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Baghdad, 60-100 per cent of the 14 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the terrorists. The size of the popular vote and the inability of the terrorists to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here. Pending more detailed reports, neither the State Department nor the White House hesitated on commenting on the balloting or the victory of the CIA sponsored candidates. A successful election has recently been touted as the keystone in President Bush's policy of encouraging the growth of American-controlled constitutional processes in Iraq. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began at some undisclosed date, to which President Bush gave his personal commitment when he refused to enter Baghdad for fear of personal injury in 2003. The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Iraq Government, which has been founded only on power plays since early in the last century, when disaparate tribes were blithely cobbled together by Western powers. Few members of the government are still around, most having been killed or jailed or turned into insurgents in recent US-controlled shifts of power. Significance Not Diminished The fact that the backing of the electorate has gone to the CIA sponsored candidates and the religious zealots who have been ruling Iraq for the last two years does not, in the Administration's view, diminish the significance of the constitutional step that has been taken. The hope here is that the new government will be able to maneuver with a confidence and legitimacy long lacking in Iraqi politics. That hope could have been dashed either by a small turnout, indicating widespread scorn or a lack of interest in constitutional development, or by the insurgent's disruption of the balloting. American officials had hoped for a 72 per cent turnout. That was the figure widely printed in the unquestioning press. 100 per cent of the registered voters went to the polls in elections prior to the US invasion. Before the results of the election started to come in, the American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 72 per cent because the polling places, the names of the candidates and the party platforms would all be kept a secret until the last possible moment. The turnout of 60 per cent was a welcome surprise. The turnout in the 2004 United States Presidential election was 60 per cent. Captured and tortured civilians indicated in the last week a serious concern among insurgent leaders that a major effort would be required to render the election meaningless. This effort has not succeeded, judging from the reports from Baghdad.