Iraq and Iran – two very different elections

By Mohammed al-Qaisi in Baghdad
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-03-06

[Muhannad Falaah/Getty Images] Iraqis rally in support of candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election.

As Iraq's third parliamentary election begins, Iraqi politicians, journalists, and intellectuals are comparing their country's upcoming election with other regional elections, especially Iran's presidential election last June.

In an editorial this week, "al-Qalam" weekly newspaper disputed the assertion in Iranian media that Iraq is trying to imitate the so-called success of Iran's presidential election.

"Iraqis do not wish and do not want their country's election to be like the presidential election in Iran, given that the latter has not been perfect," wrote "al-Qalam" editor-in-chief Assim al-Khayyat. "The Iraqi election will be a model to be followed by other countries. It will be a successful experiment in the rotation of official power without the tutelage of clerics. Iraq does not have religious systems controlling the country, as only the constitution and law govern here."

"Sawt al-Anbar" published another editorial on the same subject.

"The disturbances that took place in Iran after the announcement of the election results reveals the fraud of the Iranian election in a way that made citizens take to streets and even made some people lose their own lives," it said.

Ayad al-Fili, professor of political science at the University of Baghdad, said, "The Iranian regime's attempt to liken their election to the Iraqi election is an extremely stupid thing. The complications and tutelage have been evident in the Iranian election, and the intervention of clerics has also been clear in that election."

He said the Iraqi election indicates "the approaching end of all problems in Iraq and a time bomb in the face of the dictatorial regimes that have been stifling the region's peoples."

Al-Fili pointed out that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, appeared on television shortly before the Iranian presidential election, declaring his support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Basij and Revolutionary Guards also supported Ahmadinejad.

"The state's public funds were mobilised to serve him alone and not any other candidate. The pictures of some candidates were even removed from several locations and pictures of candidate Ahmadinejad were placed instead," al-Fili said. "This is not happening here in Iraq, where you will find the pictures of the head of government placed next to the smallest candidate, and where they will compete for the same place in the smallest Iraqi village without any intervention from the police or army."

Mohammed Hendi, president of Lana al-Ghad, an association concerned with electoral affairs in Iraq, said Iraqi clerics have not pressured Iraqis to vote for a certain candidate.

"The Iraqi election has already been a success," Hendi said. "We did not hear Sayyid al-Sistani asking Iraqis to vote for a certain party or candidate. He just urged the citizens to go to the election, and that was all. Meanwhile, Sunni scholars in Iraq said that the people have to choose the best candidate, even if he or she is not a Muslim or a Sunni."

Iraqi legal expert Tariq Harb said comparing the political process in Iraq and the ruling regimes in other regional countries is almost impossible.

"We can say that Iraq is walking in the footsteps of developed, Western countries in formulating the democratic life, but only as a beginner," Harb said. "However, it will mature over time. It would be wrong to put Iraq, with the sacrifices it has made in order to win its freedom, in the same box with other countries that claim to be democratic by just slogans and speeches while nothing is being done on the ground."

Meanwhile, Saleh al-Mutlak, leader of Iraqi Front for National Dialogue who was banned from the election by the Accountability and Justice Commission, warned against what he called "Iranian intervention in Iraqi affairs with the aim of influencing the Iraqi election."

"There is no doubt that the Iranian ruling regime is using all of its powers and influence in Iraq and is trying to strip anyone in Iraq, who they think is their opponent, from eligibility to participate in the election and political process," al-Mutlak said. "This is because they see them as posing a danger to their internal reputation in the Iranian street."

"For the time being, Iraq faces two problems only," he added. "The first is the problem of terrorism, and we are about to declare victory and get rid of it, and the second is Iran and its intervention and its funding of terrorists in order to undermine the democratic project. However, they will fail because Iraq has chosen the ballot boxes as the means for change."

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