Barack Obama is a joke and I found that skit funny.
Nancy Pelosi is a joke and I think she needs to be removed from office. THE HILL reports:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) said Tuesday she thinks a bill that would transfer the
authority to raise the debt limit from Congress to the Treasury
secretary "has merit."
Pelosi's support for shifting
the near-annual responsibility of ensuring the U.S. doesn't default on
its debts comes as a growing number of Democrats in recent weeks have endorsed abolishing the debt limit in its current form.
House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth
(D-Ky.) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) introduced a bill late last
month that would vest the responsibility of raising the debt limit with
the Treasury secretary.
She really is a stupid idiot. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse -- not some Cabinet secretary. That's an unelected official. The House has the power of the purse specifically because it represents the people directly She's an idiot. She's a dottering old fool who needs to be removed from office. At 81, she's clearly lost it. I have no idea why she's still in office but it's time for her to be removed.
A Cabinet member is not elected, a Cabinet member is part of the Executive Branch.
If Nancy doesn't grasp separation of powers as outlined by the US Constitution, her tired and feeble mind needs to go home. She's out of step.
Tuesday, October 12, 2021. The Iraqi elections continue to divide Iraq.
Sunday, Iraq held elections. Turnout was incredibly low. Ahmed Habib makes an interesting observation on Twitter:
One can’t spend the entire time saying, “#Iraq’s government are incompetent, they’re thieves, they kill with impunity,” and then turn around and say, “I believe that the elections which they administer are fair.”
Shia
Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party was the biggest winner in an
Iraqi election on Monday, increasing the number of seats he holds in
parliament, according to initial results, officials and a spokesperson
for the Sadrist Movement.
Former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki looked set to have the next largest win among Shia parties, initial results showed.
Iraq's
Shia groups have dominated governments and government formation since
the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein
and catapulted the Shia majority and the Kurds to power.
Don't you love the garbage that passes for journalism?
The
election was an embarrassment. It was a failure in every way. So the
press tries to distract. The low turnout was hard to ignore. So
instead we got a 'major' arrest that was nothing -- even if the claims
were true -- that tried to crowd out the news of the low turnout --
news that was still in the news cycle. Now along comes REUTERS to tell
us the possible results. Still need to be checked. They transcribe
what they were told beautifully but I thought REUTERS was a news
service, right? Not a transcription service.
For over two weeks, we have noted that Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) has reported: "Iraq’s electoral commission aims to announce the results of the upcoming
parliamentary elections on October 10 within 24 hours, they announced
on Thursday following a voting simulation."
The
elections were Sunday and today is . . . Tuesday. And they didn't
announce a winner, they announced "initial results" late Monday.
The
election was a failure in every way. And with record low turnout, they
still weren't able to announce results "within 24 hours."
A failure and REUTERS can't even tell you that because they're too busy checking their stenography to actually report.
Predictions of a low turnout were accurate. Predictions that nothing would change due to the election were accurate.
If
'initial' results hold (they don't increase and they do not lower),
Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc has 73 seats in the new Parliament. That's an
increase of 19 seats from the previous Parliament. (Moqtada himself
does not have a seat in the Parliament, he did not run for office.)
That's if the results hold. EL PAIS notes that the results are already being disputed:
Kataeb
Hezbollah, one of the main pro-Iranian militias, has rejected the
election results. In a statement, its leader, Abu Ali al Askari, urges
the Popular Mobilization Forces (FMP, the umbrella that groups all the
militias) to be ready to defend their “sacred entity”. He also asks the
political parties to solve “the stolen votes.” His words would be a
tantrum if they did not come from a powerful armed group with a long
history of intimidation and attacks, which the United States and other
countries consider a terrorist organization.
The leader of Iraq's Fatah (Conquest) Alliance political
coalition has dismissed the preliminary results of the of the country’s
recent parliamentary elections, describing them as “fabricated.”
“We will not accept these fabricated results, whatever the cost,” the
Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network quoted Hadi al-Amiri,
the secretary general of the Badr Organization, a political party close
to Hashd al-Sha’abi, as saying on Tuesday.
He added, “We will defend the votes cast for our candidates and voters with full force.”
Separately, the Coordinating Committee of Shia Parties in Iraq
rejected the results of the national elections, and raised strong
objection over what it described as the High Electoral Commission’s
failure to honor its obligations.
The committee is comprised of Fatah Alliance, the State of Law
Alliance, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq political party, Kata'ib Hezbollah as well
as other Shia factions.
Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki has a history of disputing election results.
AL ARABIYA Tweets:
Hadi al-Amiri, one of #Iraq's most powerful pro-Iranian figures, has rejected the results of Iraq’s elections as “fabricated.”
Leading Shia parties in Iraq have announced their collective
rejection of the results in Sunday's parliamentary elections, after the
initial evidence appeared to suggest a collapse in their vote share.
The Fatah alliance, which is composed of supporters of the country's
al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia movement, in particular denounced the results
as "fabricated" while one armed militia faction appeared to threaten
violent action in response.
According to initial results released by the Iraqi High Electoral
Commission (IHEC), the Sairoun movement led by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
came out ahead with 73 of the parliament's 329 seats, in what had been
an election with a record low turnout of 41 percent.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hadi al-Ameri, leader of Fatah, called for
a joint response against the election results from other Shia political
factions.
"We do not accept these fabricated results, whatever the cost, and we
will defend the votes of our candidates and voters with full force,"
said his office.
Sallon Helene (LE MONDE) notes that
Nouri's State of Law, by preliminary results, has won 37 seats while,
in the KRG, the Barzani family's KDP is the victor. This means the PUK
continues it's slide into irrelevance. Possibly all these years of
Jalal Talabani's sons flaunting their wealth and homes overseas
(including in the US) -- mansions, really, returning to Iraq whenever
they wanted to condemn the Kurdish people for attempting to envision an
independent Kurdistan, hasn't paid off? Or maybe the Kurdistan is still
repulsed by the Talabanis and their PUK for lying to them and the
entire world after Jalal had his infamous stroke and held onto the
office of president despite the fact that he was incapacitated -- a
detail the Talabanis got around to a degree by posing his non-moving
body for staged photographs?
A
winner per preliminary counts is former Speaker of Parliament is
Mohammed al-Halboussi who, Helene notes, faced a serious challenge from
Khamis al-Khanjar.
Shelly Kittleson Tweets:
Though much focus has been #Sadr in #Iraq's elections, parliamentary speaker #Halbusi's (photographed here with me during 1 of 2 interviews I did with him in 2018) party has seen the largest rise in seats.
I recently wrote on Sunni parties for
In other news, Ray Odierno has passed away. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III issued the following over the weekend:
Charlene and I were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of General (Ret.) Ray Odierno.
Ray was a teammate, a confidant and a powerful example to me. Mostly, he was my friend. And I will miss him dearly.
My thoughts — like those of everyone who knew him — are squarely with
Linda and their children and grandchildren. We know we cannot assuage
their grief, but we hope Ray's strong legacy of leadership brings them
some measure of comfort.
Throughout nearly four decades in uniform, Ray Odierno served his
country with great dignity and courage. He led bravely in peace and in
war. And he mentored an entire generation of future leaders.
Ray was known for his loyalty — to mission and to his people. He
cared deeply about the troops who knew him as "General O," and he and
Linda looked after the families of those troops as if they were their
own. From training and equipment to mental health and education, the
Odiernos remained tireless advocates for the health and welfare of those
who serve.
As our 38th Chief of Staff of the Army, Ray also worked to forge what
he called an "Army of the future"— a force that was agile, innovative,
adaptable, and led by leaders of character and commitment.
The United States Army, indeed our nation, is stronger for his
dedication, professionalism, and leadership. I know that I am a better
person for having had his friendship.
On behalf of the men and women of the Department of Defense, I extend
my deepest condolences to Linda and the entire Odierno family.
Odierno
served in Iraq from 2008 to 2010. He was the top US commander in Iraq
(Lloyd Austin served under him). He restored morale among US troops and
also had a good eye for seeing events others didn't notice. Prior to
the 2010 elections, he had stated that the US needed to plan for what
might happen in Nouri lost the election and refused to step down as
prime minister. Nouri did lose the March 2010 elections. And he did
refuse to step down. For over eight months, it was a political
stalemate. Had a plan been formed when Ray raised the issue, things
would have been a great deal different.
He
e-mailed this site frequently. When in Iraq, it was often via his
assistant who would open with "The general wishes to correct . . ." He
continued to e-mail after he left Iraq. I never replied while he was in
Iraq. We took what he said and looked at it and did a correction or
clarification if one was required. After he was out of Iraq, we had
many lively exchanges and I was impressed by the fact that the Iraqi
people were not forgotten by him. We disagreed on many things but it
was clear in his writing that he cared about the Iraqi people.
If
you're new to the site, I avoid private conversations with people who
are covered here. That's reporters, that's whomever. So I did not
reply when Ray Odierno was in Iraq.
Of
the US commanders who wrote over the years, he was always clear in what
bothered him if something bothered him -- and clear in the one or two
times he felt we got something right that others were missing. It
wasn't a vague e-mail that quickly became a testimony to themselves.
Think about the one who got into big trouble with his e-mails -- and
that was with his biographer -- and you'll know which blowhard I'm
referring to.
When
he communicated, his concerns were those serving under him and the
Iraqi people. If he was prone to vanity, he never demonstrated it in
e-mails. Again, we disagreed on many things, but he always came off as
someone you'd like to know and spend an afternoon talking with.
Hillary Clinton's a War Criminal -- and the whole world knows it. Some fools in the US try to pretend she's better or downgrade her to 'just' a corrupt politician but she's far worse. Far, far worse. And the rest of the world grasps that fact.
Monday, October 11, 2021. In the lowest turn out of this decade,
Iraqis voted. In other words, most adults elected not to vote.
Starting with this from the BBC.
He opens with The October Revolution -- the protesters who are part of a movement that began in the fall of 2019.
Murad
Shishani: They presented, sort of, a package of demands, as they told
me. This package included an early election but the government, the
authorities, they just only this one condition. They asked for fighting
corruption. They asked for disarming the militias. They asked for
political reform, more engagement for youth. Therefore, as the
government, they didn't meet all these demands from the protesters, then
the boycotting campaigns have been becoming more stronger, they are
today in Iraq. And this is what we've noticed in a city like Mosul
which has been liberated four years ago from the so-called Islamic
State. But that devastation is still there so people were reluctant to
go to the polling stations today.
About
two weeks ago, I created the set piece we used in every snapshot -- a
rough overview of the upcoming elections nothing this and that. And it
was added to and subtracted from and part of every snapshot. But it
wasn't as it was originally written.
Before it popped
up here, I had copied and pasted it into e-mails and sent it to various
friends who offered input. Some would say, "Well how many candidates
are running," for example, so I'd look that up and add it to the set
piece. Or I'd hear back that one paragraph wasn't clear, so I'd add
some clarification. A State Dept friend was very specific in the
suggestion that something be pulled: The Erbil Agreement.
"Call
me." That's what the e-mail read. I did. The Erbil Agreement, I was
told, would suppress voter turnout. "People are looking for a reason
not to vote. If you start going into that ahead of the elections, you
are going to depress turnout even more."
Do you agree?
I didn't. But, as I note frequently, I can be wrong and often am.
We've been covering The Erbil Agreement since 2010 when it came to be.
We've covered it every year since. That includes in 2021. Could we
hold off in the lead up to the 2021 elections? Hold off on including
it?
I explained it was already being cited on Arabic
social media and, yes, the US State Dept was aware of that (they monitor
the social networks). But, yeah, if there was a chance that hitting it
daily two weeks ahead of the election was going to depress turnout --
an American hitting it every day for two weeks influencing an Iraqi
election, sure, I could hold off. I wasn't being THE NEW YORK TIMES and
killing a needed report. We had covered this topic here repeatedly and
at length. We did so for several years when I was the only one
publicly calling it out. Then Michael Gordon and his co-writer called
it out in 2013's THE END GAME: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR
IRAQ, FROM GEORGE W> BUSH TO BARACK OBAMA.
And we
noted that. Repeatedly. Along with plans to note Michael discussing
this on various programs -- including Charlie Rose. I loathed Charlie
because his actions were well known before PBS finally dumped him. But I
knew we'd have to include him and his superficial prattle because
Michael R. Gordon was on THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW so often since the start
of the Iraq War that he was practically a staple of the show. So we'd
grab those appearances and others to highlight The Erbil Agreement.
Funny
thing, though: Charlie didn't have him on. Charlie didn't want to
talk about The Erbil Agreement, apparently. And Charlie wasn't alone.
Michael was no where to be found. Was he pulling a Garbo? No. He just
wasn't being invited on. The media didn't want to discuss Iraq
realities with a domestic audience -- one that had been fed a number of
lies -- in the lead up to the war and as it continued.
In
2010, Iraq held the same type of elections as they did yesterday. In
March of 2010, in fact. And despite bribing voters and despite
preventing opponents from campaigning -- many were pulled from the list
of eligible candidates with the claim (by the government Nouri
controlled) that they were terrorists. I don't remember being able to
cite the US media on this. I do remember the BBC did cover it and, of
course, Jasim Al-Azzawi covered it as it was taking place -- and covered
it repeatedly -- on ALJAZEERA's INSIDE IRAQ. Various Arabic languages
covered it.
At any rate, the 2010 election takes
place and despite all of the attempts to rig it, Nouri found that he and
his State of Law came in second place. In other words, they lost. And
they lost to Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya -- a brand new coalition.
Nouri
stamped his feet and the United Nations, in a moment of stupidity as
well as weakness, tossed him a few more votes in a recount. He still
lost. And that was March. He refused to step down.
This
is the political stalemate and we called it that here first. US think
tanks adopted the term about a month after we started using it:
Political stalemate.
Nouri wouldn't step down. He wouldnt in Mrach, or April or May or . . .
Quelle surprise, right?
Wrong.
Ray Odierno was the top US commander in Iraq in 2010. Ahead of the
elections, he warned of this: Nouri losing the election and refusing to
step down. And what, he wondered, would the US do if that happened?
Ray
didn't have Barack's ear. The Pig Pen Ambassador ensured that. Little
Chrissy Hill had a hissy. The press liked Ray better, wah, wah, wah.
So Ray was sidelined. He had orders not to speak to the media to refer
them to Chrissy Hill. Chrissy was so overjoyed, he had the media now as
well as those one hour, mid-day cat naps he was so fond of.
Eventually,
as the stalemate continued, word got out to Secretary of Sate Hillary
Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. And they insisted that
Barack Obama speak with Ray. He did and the US was going to support the
vote. Democracy was all about the vote. They wanted to 'bring'
democracy to Iraq, so they'd support the winner.
Hold
it just a minute, Samantha Power and others got with Joe Biden. They
dazzled him with a lot of rap about how he was put in charge of Iraq by
Barack for exactly this moment. This was where he was going to save
Iraq, they insisted. And, by backing Nouri al-Maliki, they could keep
their latest 'withdrawal' pledge -- they'd leave by the end of 2011. As
promised -- well not the original promise Barack made on the campaign
trail but, after all, Samantha Power had told the BBC back in 2008 that
those were just words and nothing binding, Barack would decide about
Iraq after he got elected. And he did. Repeatedly. New dates coming
repeatedly.
But, Samantha purred (yes, it is a
disgusting image) to Joe, what Iraq needs now is a great statesman and
that's why you are Vice President and not a US senator at this moment,
you are needed to lead with the wisdom that you possess that no one else
in the administration does.
You, she fumbled, you, understand Ireland!
Ego
flattered, Joe informed Barack that they had to back Nouri. He was
Bully Boy Bush's choice back in 2006 and they wanted to break with Bully
Boy but Nouri would provide stability and Nouri would do their bidding
and Nouri would allow (most) US troops to leave at the end of 2011 and,
in all his years of public service, nothing had even been clearer to
Joe.
What to do about the voters and their votes?
Joe
proposed he would set up a contract and he did. The Erbil Agreement
set aside the 2010 votes. It was signed off on by all of Iraq's major
political groups. It gave Nouri a second term. In exchange it met the
demands of the various leaders.
Of course, Nouri
didn't honor those demands. He told them to wait a few weeks -- back in
November of 2010 when they signed it and he became prime
minister-designate -- and then, by the time 2011 started, he stated,
through his media spokesperson (who'd later flee the country when Nouri
tried to scapegoat him for a deal with Russia that made Nouri and his
son rich), Nouri was stating that the contract was illegal and he
wouldn't honor it.
That shouldn't have surprised
anyone. The day Nouri was named prime minister-designate, Ayad Allawi
and his members left the Parliament. Barack Obama made a call and
pleaded with Allawi to return. In that phone call, he promised that the
US would fully support The Erbil Agreement. When you hear Ayad Allawi
in the media offering ugly truths about the US government? He's
speaking as someone who knows. As someone who was personally promised
things and who never saw them -- despite the promises coming from the
sitting president of the United States.
We've covered
most of the above before -- we've left out Samantha Power's remarks
though I've always known of them. As I said when Joe Biden was flirting
with a run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Joe
needed to get honest about Iraq to win my vote. He never did. Maybe
this'll help him?
Joe shows up talking Ireland, showed
up in Iraq. It confused Ray Odierno and Emma Sky as well as all the
Iraqis present. Be confused no more. Though Joe was no great leader on
Ireland as a US senator, he was Irish and Samantha Power (also Irish)
played to his ego. He showed up for that meet-up thinking he was the
world's greatest statesperson and bound and determined to strut. That's
why he brought up Ireland -- even though Ireland had nothing to do with
the current situation in Iraq.
By the way, Emma wrote a
book that we've sighted many times and will continue to site. Her book
got more attention that Michael Gordon's . . . outside the US. The
CBC, for example, did extensive coverage. In the US, it got some public
radio traction but not a lot more. It, too, told the truth about The
Erbil Agreement and how the US spat on democracy in 2015's THE
UNRAVELING: HIGH HOPES AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES IN IRAQ.
Though
the American public has largely been sheltered from The Erbil
Agreement, the rest of the world is a little more informed and,
certainly, Iraqis lived through it so they know, they grasp it.
And
long before early elections were called, Arabic social media was
already noting that Joe Biden, the man who rammed through The Erbil
Agreement and overturned the votes of the Iraqi people, was now
president.
They knew it and we'd long covered it here so I was fine with setting it aside in the two week lead up to Sunday's vote.
Elections took place in Iraq Sunday, they supposedly will determine the next
Parliament (Parliament dissolved itself October 7th) as well as the next
prime minister. Parliament will also get a Speaker and Iraq will get a
president. The role of president is purely ceremonial though the
current president, Barham Salih, has spent his terms increasing the role
of the president beyond what the Constitution dictates. He may or may
not have a third term as president after today.
He is a
member of the PUK which once shared a spot with the KDP as one of the
Kurdistan's two dominant parties. Once. With the CIA seed money, Goran
("Change") emerged and quickly began to challenge the PUK for votes. RUDAW reminds,
"In the 2018 election, KDP won eight seats, Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan
(PUK) two, New Generation two, and the Coalition for Democracy and
Justice (CDJ), Gorran, and Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal) each took
one." For this election, the once powerful PUK entered into an
alliance with Goran in an attempt to increase their votes. Of all the
areas people will be watching the turnout in, the KRG is one of the ones
of keen interest. There was always talk that turnout would be low in
Mosul (in the KRG's Nineveh Province -- where biometric voter i.d. cards
were not issued promptly) and that was in part due to issues involving
the turnout of Christian voters. But the Kurdistan region is not facing
some of the same obstacles that the other areas are.
Keen
to see will be whether the KDP -- which holds the position of Prime
Minister of Kurdistan and President of Kurdistan -- manages to remain
the region's dominant party. By custom (since the 2003 US-led invasion
of Iraq), the post of President goes to a Kurd, the post of Speaker of
Parliament goes to a Sunni and the post of Prime Minister goes to a
Shi'ite. By custom, the struggle for these posts is now on.
Of
the three, the prize is prime minister. It is the prime minister who
rules Iraq -- though some would argue that it's actually the governments
of Iran and the United States that rule Iraq.
John Davidson and Ahmed Rasheed (REUTERS) report,
"Iraq's parliamentary election on Sunday drew one of the smallest
turnouts for years, electoral officials indicated, with the low
participation suggesting dwindling trust in political leaders and the
democratic system brought in by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion." The
political leadership has been corrupt. With the billions in oil
revenues that the government of Iraq takes in yearly, there is no reason
why poverty should exist in Iraq. But not only does it exist, it is
actually increasing. The corrupt leaders have taken public monies.
That money, for example, has bought multiple sports cars and homes in
Europe for Ahmed al-Maliki, son of forever thug and former prime
minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki whose (mis)leadership and paranoia
helped create ISIS and led to its seizure of Mosul and other areas in
2014. The corruption has continued and worsened. Long cited by
Transparency International as one of the five most corrupt nations in
the world, Iraq's governmental corruption is now so bad that President
Saleh, addressing the United Nations last month, called it one of the
greatest security threats to the country.
ALJAZEERA notes,
"Two electoral commission officials said the nationwide turnout of
eligible voters was 19 percent by midday. Turnout was 44.5 percent in
the last election in 2018." Since 2018? The October Revolution. That
movement of mainly Shi'ite protesters began in 2019 protesting the
corruption, the lack of jobs, the lack of dependable public services
(such as electricity and potable water). Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim (WASHINGTON POST) observe:
In effect, Sunday’s election was a referendum on that system, and most Iraqis chose to stay home.
Despite
a months-long campaign and millions of dollars spent by foreign
governments including the United States to boost trust in the voting
process, Iraq’s electoral commission said turnout by midday was only
around 20 percent and that it had risen only slowly through the
afternoon.
Prime
Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi came to office last year vowing early
elections after mass protests ousted his predecessor, Adel Abdul Mahdi,
in 2019. On Sunday, voters trickled to the polls through some of the
streets where security forces had fired live ammunition into crowds and
killed 600 during the months-long protests.
Muna Hussein, a 22-year-old cinematic makeup artist, said she boycotted
the election because she did not feel there was a safe environment “with
uncontrolled weapons everywhere,” a reference to the mainly Shiite
militias backed by neighboring Iran.
“In my opinion, it isn’t easy to hold free and fair elections under the current circumstances,” she said.
Amir Fadel, a 22-year-old car dealer, disagreed. “I don’t want these
same faces and same parties to return,” he said after casting his ballot
in Baghdad’s Karradah district.
An Iraqi community member who is Shi'ite notes that she did not vote but that her parents did.
They
are supporting Harakat Huqooq which is linked to Iran and whose leader
is Hussein Muanis. Among the reasons? Hussein has spoken of their
militia laying down arms (once US and other foreign forces are out of
the country -- Hussein leads Kataeb Hezbollah). They also see him as a
fresh face compared to 71-year-old Nouri al-Maliki (who leads State of
Law) -- Hussein is fifty-years-old. They are not impressed with the
people who have led in the past and feel that Iraq needs to move beyond
"settling old scores and working towards a future" and that politicians
like Hussein could lead the country towards that. Herself? She
couldn't bring herself to vote for those who attacked her and her
friends when they were out in the streets protesting or for those who
stayed silent as they were attacked. She's 24-years-old and part of one
of the biggest age groups in Iraq. AFP notes, "Sixty percent of Iraq’s population is under 25. For them, the ballot is
about the same old faces who are unable to fix a country rich in oil but
replete with problems, including a youth unemployment rate of around 40
percent." Shant Shahrigian (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) offers, "Many young people heeded calls to boycott the election, wary after
security forces in 2019 attacked protesters demanding basic public
services and an end to corruption. About 600 people were killed and
thousands of others injured during the crackdown."
While the walls of Karrada were covered with posters and banners
urging customers to support the likes of the State of Law, Taqaddum or
Fatah coalitions, or any number of political parties, the men in the
cafe are arguably representative of the biggest constituency in Iraq -
non-voters.
"I threw away my election card," Murtada, a young medical student,
told Middle East Eye. "The country is sold, there's no-one to vote for.
This country's on its way to hell."
A number of his friends, he added, had gone to the polling stations
to "sell their votes" for around 50,000 or 100,000 dinars ($35 to $70) a
go, deciding it was worth more to them not to starve than vote in a
hopeless election.
When will results be known? Sinan Mahmoud, Haider Husseini and Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) explain, "The
results of Iraq's first elections under new electoral law will be
revealed at 3pm local time on Monday afternoon, within 24 hours of polls
closing, the Iraqi electoral commission has said. They
are likely to be overshadowed by the confirmation of a low voter
turnout, despite Iraq's prime minister hailing the process as 'safe and
fair' -- a verdict echoed by the electoral commission chairman."
Horse trading for the positions is expected to take many months – a
process that is likely to result in ministries again being carved up
between blocs. “The election allows a veneer of democracy,” said Munther
Mansour, a Baghdad resident. “But nothing that comes afterwards is
democratic.”
2010 saw the longest amount of time in
Iraq between elections and a government being formed. It lasted over
eight months and only ended because Joe Biden and the US government
brokered The Erbil Agreement -- a legal contract that set the votes
aside and allowed second place winner Nouri al-Maliki to have a second
term as prime minister
The
country has held five parliamentary elections since the US-led invasion
of Iraq in 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, but most ordinary
Iraqis say their lives have not improved even during the relative peace
since ISIS was defeated in 2017.
Large
parts of Iraq's infrastructure lie in disrepair and there is inadequate
healthcare, education and basic services especially electricity.
Initial election results are expected on Monday.
Ray
Odierno has passed away. We'll note that tomorrow and I'll probably
reference some of the communication we had with Odierno over the years.
