Thank you President Bush :) Also Pres Obama is wrong he no longer has 2 wars he has only one now and that depends on what he wants to do. He does not have to go to Afganistan...
Alaa al-Marjani
/
AP
New Era? An Iraqi man holds his child while voting in Najaf on Jan. 31
INTERNATIONAL
A New Iraq?
Citizens turned out in a peaceful, transparent election. And they voted for change.
Feb 5, 2009
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
SPONSORED BY
For a man once viewed as an American patsy and an innocuous transitional figure in Iraq's chaotic politics, Nuri al-Maliki has come a long way. He was no one's first choice when he became prime minister in April 2006, but Maliki has hung onto the job and grown steadily in stature. On Thursday, the country's electoral commission announced that, with 90 percent of votes counted, his political coalition triumphed in nine of 14 provinces where elections were held six days ago.
While not a candidate himself, Maliki saw his State of Law alliance emerge as the top vote getter in the provincial elections. The coalition topped competitors ranging from the political network inspired by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to Sunni Islamists to tribal parties in an election that monitors from the Arab League said took place in an atmosphere of "transparency and integrity." Voting was mostly peaceful in the country, which has seen a sharp decline in violence in recent months, with turnout estimated at 51 percent of eligible voters. (The 10 percent of the vote not yet tabulated were cast by the Iraqi Security Forces, prison inmates, hospital residents, displaced persons and others, and also includes contested ballots.)
The results may change the political calculus in the ravaged nation. They leave Maliki looming as a dominant figure ahead of national elections scheduled for the next year or so. More important, the election suggests that Iraqis are motivated more by pragmatism than by religion and tribalism, and may be maturing as voters. "People were saying, 'We're tired of you guys telling us about religion. We want services. We want stuff, not prayer'," says a Western adviser to the Maliki government who is not authorized to speak for the administration. "The big 'aha' is that all of a sudden the election became an issues-based election and not a religion- or affinity-based election."
Maliki himself may have set the tone. Long a partisan, narrowly focused Shiite politician who many feared would seek retribution against minority Sunnis who controlled Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the prime minister instead positioned himself as a tough guy concerned above all with security. He also portrayed himself as someone willing to stand up to the United States. And yet his policies in the past year have hewed close to the American road map. He brought back the Iraqi Army, sought compromise with Sunnis and national reconciliation and went after the militias, Sunni and Shiite alike. He cast himself as El Cid, personally leading offensives in Mosul and Basra. He stood up to the Kurds, which may have unnerved the Americans, but played well with fellow Arabs.
And Maliki appears to have adjusted his own political modus operandi. While his political party, Dawa, is traditionally centralized, ideological and even rigid, Maliki apparently recruited candidates who were already seen as effective leaders in their provinces. And those candidates stressed their ability to get things done. "[The election results] suggest that the Iraqi citizen has such a level of awareness that he did not get affected by the media propaganda," Hassan al-Senaid, a Dawa Party member of Parliament, tells NEWSWEEK. "Instead, the Iraqi citizen chose who truly represents him and [things like] electricity had the final say."
Iraqis apparently looked past sectarianism and tribal concerns for candidates who could deliver. Voters inKarbala, a central-Iraq province that contains the holy city of the same name, bucked the pro-Maliki trend, relegating the Maliki list to third place. They instead elected the slate led by Yusuf Magid al-Haboobi, reputedly a former Baathist. Haboobi has little renown nationally, but is known as an effective mayor of small towns in the area. The current provincial government, meanwhile, is in Dawa hands and is accused of incompetence and corruption. The conclusion: a record of ability to provide basic services trumped party labels.
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
Discuss