CPTnet
1 February 2005
IRAQ: A tale of two elections
by Allan Slater
The Canadian election on 30 January was successful. Voting across the
prairies proceeded with few problems meeting the high standards of the
European Union election monitors. The turnout ranged from 50% to 90% in
some polling places. The total ban on road traffic made walking to polling
places safe for everyone.
No one voted in Vancouver because the election workers had all resigned.
They were afraid of resistance fighters targeting them.
In Toronto, the country's largest city, some estimate that 65% of those
eligible turned out to vote even though thirteen suicide bombers attacked
polling places and voters across the city. Scores of people died and many
more were injured. In the 905 area outside the city unrest made opening
polling places there impossible, but special polling stations were set up in
Toronto for people from that area.
Occupation bombing had reduced the city of Halifax to rubble. The people in
the Maritime Provinces were so angry that no election could be held there.
An unconfirmed report said that fifty refugee families from Halifax living
in a camp in Quebec had voted.
Strangely enough a similar election was held in Iraq on the same day.
Voting went well in the north and south of the country. Voters had to walk
to the polls because only police vehicles were allowed on the roads. Those
in power declared the election a success. No voting had occurred in Mosul,
the country's third largest city. U.S. bombers had turned the city of
Fallujah into rubble. The citizens of Anbar Province were so angered by the
destruction of Fallujah that no election could be held in that region.
Voting took place in Baghdad in spite of the suicide bombings. People
from the "triangle of death" south of the city were invited in to Baghdad
to vote but few, if any, did so.
The results of this Iraqi election will be announced in two weeks.
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