A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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January 30, 2005Iraqi Polls ClosedLooks like a success. Iraqi officials report a turnout of 72%, reaching up to 90% in Shiite areas. It looks like the silent majority came out to choose their next leaders. The exception is in Sunni strongholds like Tikrit, where polling stations were empty. That's their loss. Voters braved the threat of violence, and some actual execution of voters
Hopefully, this will inspire Iraqis to defend their new government, and allow American troops to withdraw without in any sense abandoning them. Update: The Moderate Voice has an excellent roundup on the election, including a doctored photo which sends a message. Posted by rickheller at January 30, 2005 09:05 AMComments
Peter Jennings warns that we should be cautious about predicting outcome on This Week, and Steppy says that the turnout was more like 55%. Reports also indicate that in Mosul, turnout was not anything to write home about. Either way, I think the right way to go about this is to point out that the fact Iraqis voted in any amount is a positive step, but there is still a lot of work to be done. As Secretary of Rice said in response to Jennings: this is nothing more than a first step in Iraqi Democracy... To claim failure or success either way seems to me to be premature no matter how many voted... It's what we do with it in the coming weeks that matters. Posted by: Mathew at January 30, 2005 10:27 AMLooking more like about 60% turnout, which would still be fantastic. By comparison last year in America, in one of the most hotly contested presidential elections of recent years with record numbers of Americans voting, we had 60% turnout of eligible voters. And no one was threatening to kill us or cut off our heads for showing up. All we had to do was wait in line. Posted by: Tully at January 30, 2005 12:40 PM |
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