“Elections are the revolutions of democratic societies”

– Saeed al-Qaysi, a Mosul architect

Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

Coming elections for Iraq’s Sunni Provinces will test the country’s stability following US action. The local elections were already held but these two Sunni Muslim provinces had elections delayed after a spike in heavy violence in an ongoing insurgency.  This is from an impressive article on a local Iraqi website called Niqash:

The back drop to these late elections is fraught, with the cities in both areas filled with security forces, military and police due to the protests that have been going on there for more than five months now.  The protests are led by Iraq’s Sunni Muslims who say they are discriminated against and marginalised by the current Shiite Muslim-led government in Baghdad, headed by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.  Recently things became even more tense when Iraqi army forces, acting on behalf of the Shiite Muslim-led government, turned on mostly Sunni Muslim protestors in Hawija in Ninewa in the north of the country. Around 50 demonstrators were killed.

The article also had interesting information on the coming in elections in both provinces:

In Iraq’s western Anbar province, there will be more than 500 candidates competing for around 29 seats on various provincial authorities. According to official data there are 300 polling stations in Anbar and around 851,000 eligible voters. Additionally over 30,000 members of security forces currently in the province will also vote at about 38 special polling stations before the public elections. Campaign posters are everywhere, on bridges, streets and even plastered onto security checkpoints. Local television shows are devoting hours to candidate interviews. 

In the northern province of Ninewa, official numbers say that there are around 1.8 million eligible voters who will be heading to around 718 polling stations at the end of this month. There they will decide between 680 candidates competing for 39 seats on local authorities there. Interestingly enough, the massive influx of security forces from southern Iraq has seen the dangerous city of Mosul become safer.

According to an article on Radio Free Europe, Prime Minister Maliki’s Alliance is in for big loses:

The State of Law bloc, a coalition headed by Maliki that is made up of three Shi’ite parties, won the largest number of seats in seven of 12 provinces participating in the local elections. But the bloc, which ended up with 97 seats, did not win a majority in any province and lost seats overall. Significantly, the proportion of the bloc’s votes won by Maliki’s Dawa Party decreased dramatically. Meanwhile, an alliance led by influential Shi’ite cleric Amar al-Hakim made significant inroads and finished second with 60 seats. The Shi’ite-dominated Liberals Coalition ranked third with 55 seats. The secular but Sunni-dominated Al-Iraqiyah bloc had a disappointing showing, winning just 11 seats.

The following information was available on Wikipedia and as an Arabic link:

A parliamentary election was held on 7 March 2010. The parliament previously approved to increase the number of seats from 275 to 325, of which 5 seats were reserved for Assyrians. Going into the elections, four Christians were in the parliament: Yonadam Kanna (ADM), Fawzi Hariri (KDP,) Ablahad Afraim Sawa (CDUP,) and Wijdan Michael (Allawi list.)  The Assyrian Patriotic Party, Chaldean Democratic Forum, and the Bet Nahrain Democratic Party announced on November 15, that they would create an alliance.