MORE confusion regarding the Jan 30 Iraqi elections

With over 5,000 candidates listed, anonymously or by name, and no one running as a representative of a particular locale, the task of deciding whom to back is too much for some. Many Iraqis say they cannot even figure out the differences between the platforms set forth by various political groupings.

"I have seen the lists, and I don't know any of them," said Mustafa, a 20-year-old physics student at Baghdad University. "I don't know if I'll vote yet because we don't know any of these people. I can't vote for someone I don't know."

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1393

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Diebold will be conducting the elections in Sadr City, Mosul, Fallujah and Ramadi

<sarcasm /off>

Legitimate votes come when they're not held under the barrel of a gun. I've heard there are 79 different "parties" participating, but it isn't designated as such on the ballot. Also, there's no direct sufferage involved here...you're not voting on direct representation, just someone to represent you in writing up what that representation means. What a mind meld.

Then...after this fiasco is completed, this new assembly is supposed to come up with a united Iraqi Constitution in months...something it took our forefathers, with far more internal motivation, nearly 15 years to complete, and then to somehow have another election where the flowers will flow and "democracy" will finally take root in Iraq.

These antics set democracy back...not forward. Watching the History Channel's feature on Hitler and how he used a weak assembly imposed on his country by outsiders to rise to power, we're doing a fine job in setting up the paving stones to the next Saddam. Good going, Junior!

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unless you feel that OUR troops are just CANNON FODDER for bush* elections in Iraq....otherwise, it's a real bad situation and getting worse every day....


January 10, 2005...PHOTOS that bush* doesn't want YOU to see....

"FREE ELECTIONS" in a nation under occupation by a foreign army under martial law voting for unknown candidates at unknown locations during a raging war to select a group who will select a group to select a group to run for permanent government next year.

Gee. Such GOOD NEWS.

IIRC registration started a couple days ago.
Two-thirds of "registered" voters means nothing at all about turnout.
A sample size of 300 is not compelling either.