I desperately wanted the Iraqi elections to succeed. In my own mind, I thought that a turnout of 65-70% overall with more than 40% turnout amongst the Sunni’s would be a pretty good barometer of success.
Alas, it would appear that the overall turnout won’t hit 60%. And the Sunni’s? Fox news just reported from Mosul, a Sunni stronghold, that they had ballots at one polling place for an expected 3000 voters and had given out only 300. We won’t know for several hours what the estimated turnout was and probably not for a week what was the actual number of Iraqis who went to the polls.
Round one to al Zarqawi and his supporters in America specifically, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, and John Kerry who all devoutly wished for the election process to fail.
This was the first round in a series of elections in Iraq. These elections determined who would sit in a temporary National Assembly. This assembly will have until October 15 of this year to draft a constitution at which time there will be another election in December to ratify that constitution. Then, early next year, there will be elections for a permanent National Assembly and a separate election for President.
One can only hope that the security situation will improve-especially in Sunni dominated areas-so that future elections can have better participation. For now, my guess is that the world will give the nod to this election being legitimate, but just barely.
We’ve got to do better next time.
UPDATE:
Initial reports may have underreported the turnout. Some cities in the southern part of the country have reported turnout as high as 90%. And while many of the righty bloggers have already proclaimed success, I’m going to withhold judgement until at least Tuesday when we get some firm numbers-especially from the Sunni districts.
1/30/2005
THIS IS SUCCESS?
CATEGORY: General
By: Rick Moran at 5:46 am
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