In great numbers and at great risk, Iraqis last week voted in the country’s first democratic election in decades, and U of T students were watching carefully. The January 30 elections marked the transition from an interim government-appointed last summer by U.N and American officials-to an elected government, although the United States maintains a significant armed force within the country. The election involved appointing a 27-member Transitional National Assembly that will serve as Iraq’s national legislature. The assembly’s duties now include drafting Iraq’s new constitution and appointing a Presidency Council that will elect a Prime Minister and cabinet ministers.
“It will be a totally new experience for Iraqis to vote, to have a say in government,” said U of T student Faraz Siddiqui. “There will still be differences, not everyone can talk, but it’s in a good direction. If the government respects people’s issues and views, and in turn the new government works for the people’s interests, then the elections could be something positive.”
However, this optimism is not shared by all Muslims, as many regard the US-led invasion and occupation with resentment and suspicion.
“The freedom Bush sells is not necessarily the turn Iraqis want to take,” said one U of T student who declined to be identified. “We already notice the beginnings of secularism and public displays of lewdness in Iraq.”
“The whole concept of war is wrong,” says Siddiqui, whose parents lived in neighboring Kuwait during the 2002 American invasion of Iraq. Like Siddiqui, a Muslim but non-Iraqi, many Muslim students said they felt some connection to the election, especially as violence raged across the country in advance of the vote. Attacks on temples and mosques, and racial profiling have been a bitter reality for Muslims throughout the world. “The Iraqi invasion has sparked negative feelings towards Muslims worldwide, so they have to make themselves credible again,” said Faraz.
With 45 per cent of the vote counted as of Friday, Iraq’s United Iraqi Alliance dominates the results with two-thirds of a possible 3.3 million votes, the country’s election commission reported Friday. However, these results have the potential to aggravate the already tense relations between Iraq’s two largest religious groups, the Sunni and the Shia. The Alliance, composed mostly of Shia Iraqis, appears to have won much of the expatriate vote, reports the International Organization for Migration. According to Syed Haq, a U of T Sunni student, many Sunni Arabs have boycotted the election. Haq predicted that such tensions will result in civil war, as Sunnis will not accept a Shia-dominated government.
Even with the grievances of many Muslims, the nature of democratic representation was well received by most.
“It is the first time we vote as a people in over 50 years; it is an amazing feeling following 35 years of military dictatorship,” said Furat al Yassin, a member of Amnesty International. “The campaign was acceptable with the exception of security issues which prompted many states to withhold names from becoming public,” said al Yassin.
Al Yassin said that the future of Iraq lies in the hands of its people: “I am very hopeful for the future of Iraq. I’ve been there twice since the US occupation and have encountered some of the most courageous people there. They know what they’ve gone through, they have no illusions about US interests and are determined to define their destiny without foreign intervention. I hope the wider peoples of the Middle East learn from the Iraqi courage and experience and follow in their footsteps.”
