Iraqi Election is Huge Psychological Victory
The successful completion of Iraqi voting is a huge psychological victory for everybody in the world, except those who want to defeat the process.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s interim leader called on his countrymen to set aside their differences Monday, while polling stations finished the first-phase count of millions of ballots from the weekend election that many Iraqis hope will usher in democracy and hasten the departure of 150,000 American troops.
From the counts by individual stations, local centers will prepare tally sheets and send them to Baghdad, where vote totals will be compiled, election Commission official Adel al-Lami said. Final results could take up to 10 days.
With turnout in the vote still unknown, concern was focused on participation by Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, amid fears that the group that drives the insurgency could grow ever more alienated. Electoral commission officials said turnout in hardline Sunni areas was better than some expected, thought they cited no numbers. A U.S. diplomat warned that Sunni participation appeared "considerably lower" than that of other groups.
Iraq’s problems are far from over and it remains to be seen if the necessary level of order can be restored for the country to move forward and for the U.S. to get out.
The fact that so many Iraqi’s voted in the face of threats on their lives says a lot about their hopes for the future. Of course, yesterday’s vote took place under martial law and ironically in an atmosphere of little freedom with a curfew in place and vehicles prohibited on the roads.
Once that level of security is lifted, I expect there will be many more attacks, especially on those politicians who won positions in the new government.
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