« Car bomb work of Iranian intelligence": Najaf chief of police | Main | Timeline for devastating Asian tidal waves »
December 30, 2004
Election ramp-up continues unabated amidst violence - Zarqawi aide arrested
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesWhile all we seem to hear about on the Iraq war front is violence, in fact far more has been going on in the Iraqi election front. Today on one hand we have some good election news and on the other some good war news as well. In regard to the Iraqi election process and the continuous violence with the insurgent/terrorists doing everything they possibly can to prevent the elections from occuring, I believe that the most important aspect to keep in mind is whether or not an election has previously been successfully conducted under such an umbrella of violence. Is there a model to follow, a successful model that portends the propability of success and what was it's aftermath? The answer is that there is such a model - it is "the El-Salvador Precedent." In 1982 El-Salvador, like Iraq today, was subjected to terrorist activities and under popular pressure they held the elections on schedule anyway despite continued violence, and the election of the parliament and the new government was a turning point leading to the decline of terrorism. Let's take a look at what MEMRI has about this while also looking at the war picture.
First some excerpts from a MEMRI election update that includes the El Salvadore model.
From the Middle East Media Research Institute comes this Dec 30 update on Iraq's progress toward the elections:
Amidst intensifying acts of violence and many calls to postpone the elections, preparations for the balloting in Iraq scheduled for January 30 have been proceeding unabated. By the deadline of December 15, 107 lists carrying the names of 7200 candidates for the 275 seats in the National Assembly were submitted and approved by the High Commission for Elections. The lists represent 73 single political parties, 25 independent candidates, and 9 lists of various coalitions or combinations of political parties.
In addition to the lists for the national assembly, 382 lists with 7850 candidates have been submitted for the election of members of the 18 provincial councils (41 members for each council with the exception of Baghdad, which will elect 51 members). Finally, 499 candidates - submitted either on a joint list of the two major Kurdish parties or on a list of one of the 17 smaller Kurdish parties - will be competing for the 111 seats in the Kurdish National Council (independent Kurdish parliament). [1] A chart illustrating the election process in Iraq is attached as an annex.
The U.N. Secretary General's special representative to Iraq, Ashraf Kadi, has declared that the logistical arrangements necessary for conducting credible Iraqi elections on January 30 are in place. However, unlike the cases of Afghanistan and East Timor where the United Nations ran the elections, in Iraq the responsibility for running the elections rests with the country's High Commission for Elections.
(...) The El-Salvador Precedent
An editorial in the Iraqi daily Al-Sabah urged the Iraqis to vote despite the dangers of terrorism. It reminded them of the experience in El-Salvador in 1982 when that country, like Iraq today, was subjected to terrorist activities. Under popular pressure, the elections were held on schedule, and the election of a parliament and a new government was a turning point leading to the decline of terrorism. It says the example is applicable to Iraq and "the Iraqis should not be afraid of terrorism but, on the contrary, they should confront it because the terrorists are cowards when confronted with the will of the people."
(Click on image to enlarge - Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli is Senior Analyst of MEMRI 's Middle East Economic Studies Program.)
(...) The Iraqi National Alliance
By all accounts, the most important list of candidates is the Iraqi National Alliance. The list, primarily representing the Shi'ite majority and fashioned in consultation with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, offers 228 candidates divided equally between representatives of major Shi'ite political parties and independent candidates who are mainly Shi'ite, but include Sunnis, Failis (Kurdish Shi'ites), Turkmen, and Yazdis (another Kurdish splinter group).
The political parties represented on the list are the Islamic Da'wa Party, headed by Ibrahim al-Ja'fari, interim Vice President of Iraq; the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), headed by Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, who also heads the national alliance list; and the Iraqi National Congress, headed by Dr. Ahmad Chalabi. A less significant party is Hizbullah, headed by Abd al-Karim al-Mahmadawi. A significant independent candidate on the list is Dr. Hussein Shahristani, who put the list together in consultation with Sistani. Shahristani, a former nuclear physicist who refused to be co-opted into Saddam's weapons program and was subsequently imprisoned, is considered a likely candidate to be the next prime minister of Iraq, a post he had turned down when it was offered to him by Ambassador Paul Bremer when the interim government was constituted. While the list represents a broad segment of the Iraqi society, there is little that it has offered in terms of its political program and how it might restore stability to the country. Noticed for his absence from the list is Muqtada al-Sadr, who has refused to offer his support for the National Alliance. Continue reading the highly informative Middle East Media Research Institute article...
On the war front we have this 'good news' report....
-The Australian Dec 30, Baghdad. Source-AFP
US-led forces in Iraq have captured a senior member of the al-Qaeda-linked network led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi Government said today.
Fadil Hussain Ahmed al-Kurdi was captured along with two other suspected insurgents, the Government said.
Kurdi, a 26-year-old Iraqi Kurd also known as Ridha, was the brother of Umar Baziyani, a Zarqawi lieutenant captured in May, it said.
"Ridha was responsible for facilitating communications between al-Qaeda and the Zarqawi terror networks as well as coordinating the movement of terrorists in and out of Iraq," a Government statement said.
"Both Ridha and Umar Baziyani remain in detention and are being question by Iraqi and coalition forces."
The Government did not say when the arrests were made.
US forces said three weeks ago they had seized unidentified "trans-national terrorists" in Baghdad.
On Monday, an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin-Laden endorsed Zarqawi as al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq and called for holy war against foreign troops and Iraqi forces trying to secure Iraq's elections scheduled for January 30.
The Government said this week another senior member of Zarqawi's network was captured in Mosul.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for many of the bloodiest suicide attacks in Iraq and has beheaded several foreign hostages.
The "trans-national terrorists" referred to in "the Australian" article are of course some of the foreign terrorists that came to Iraq to interfere in Iraq's internal political process and it's attempts to achieve true democracy. Of course many came just to fight Americans and the "infidels." In both cases they have joined with the Sadaam loyalists and Baathists operating out of Syria with impunity, and will continue to attempt to disrupt the election process, probably beyond it's completion. But the election is moving forward, and although we hear very little about it from the MSM, a great amount of planning and work has gone into making it happen, many people are involved with and in the process, and come January 30, it will occur over a period of ten hours, between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (one minute after sunrise and 33 minutes before sunset). There will be 7000 ballot boxes across Iraq, each guarded by the Iraqi police, the National Guard, and security firms. It is estimated that 103,000 security officers will be guarding the polling stations. The multinational force will stay in the background in order not to be seen as influencing the outcome of the elections. (information source: MEMRI)
Cross posted at Jawa Report and Interested-Participant.
Also at Digger's Realm
Posted by Hyscience at December 30, 2004 4:55 PM
Articles Related to Middle East News and Perspectives:
