Jordan hosts Iraqi voters in key election

By Saleh Zaitoun in Amman
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-03-05

[Saleh Zaitoun] An Iraqi from Anbar province casting his vote in Jordan.

All the preparations for the upcoming Iraqi elections have been completed in Amman and two of the nation's biggest cities, Irbid and Zarqa, and voters have started to go to the polls.

A joint Iraqi-Jordanian committee carried out inspections of the voting stations in 13 voting centres located on school premises, where accessibility for Iraqis and security concerns have been taken into account.

Farras Ali, spokesman for the Independent High Electoral Commission in Jordan, said that the commission had received all the logistical supplies sent from Iraq, including ballot boxes and ballot papers in excess of what is needed in case there are mistakes, or if voters change their minds after filling in a ballot, but before dropping in into a ballot box.

He added that these supplies were stored in warehouses under tight security and they were only distributed Friday morning at dawn, the first day of the elections.

Iraqi security agencies will take charge of security inside the voting centres in order to guarantee security for the voters and ensure fair elections.

Now that voting has started, Iraqis residing in Jordan are getting more excited about voting, hoping that they would tip the balance. Visits made by some leaders of political groups in Iraq to Amman played an important role in encouraging Iraqis to vote.

Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, who is contesting the elections under the banner of the Iraqiya List led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, visited Amman on February 28th, where he told the Iraqi community that Iraq has reached a turning point.

He said, "A sum of $300 billion has been made available to Iraq, all foreign debts have been cancelled, there is unprecedented international support for Iraq, and domestic support from a government that we have named the government of national unity."

Namiq Asadi, an Iraqi residing in Jordan, told Al-Shorfa that "today we have an opportunity for change, and if we miss this opportunity, it won't come until four years later, which is a long time in terms of building a people, a civilization and nations."

Asadi added that "we should not make the wrong decision this time or else the four coming years will end up being similar to the past four years."

Sajidah Farrati said that "the time of change and salvation has arrived, and we have to reconsider those who have been denied participation during the distorted democratic experiment which Iraq has gone through during the last five years."

Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group based in Amman and Brussels issued a special report March 3rd on the elections in Iraq, in which it expressed concerns regarding the decisions of the Accountability and Justice Commission to bar important figures from contesting the elections.

The report indicated that the spectre of the 2005 elections is looming, after the Sunni Arabs boycotted the elections and deprived themselves of their voting rights.

The report made recommendations to the Iraqi government, the most important ones being: ensuring free and fair elections by implementing the code of conduct which has been signed by the main coalitions; deploying security forces in order to ensure free and secure access to the voting centres; and allowing barred candidates to participate.

Additionally, the report called for allowing the Independent High Electoral Commission and the High Court to work independently and protecting these institutions from outside interference.

It also demanded that "the international community take a firm stance in case red lines are crossed, and in case the election results are not recognized widely by the public, which will make the diplomatic, military and development aid contingent upon the commitment to a comprehensive program of institutional reform."

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