November 5, 2004
REVERSE THE CLEANSING:
raqi Officials to Allow Vote by Expatriates (EDWARD WONG, 11/05/04, NY Times)
Iraqi electoral officials said Thursday they would allow millions of Iraqis outside the country to vote in the coming election. The decision, made after weeks of anguished debate, appeared certain to increase tensions among the minority Sunni Arabs here, because most Iraqi expatriates are believed to be Shiites."We've decided to allow Iraqis abroad to vote, and the mechanism will be worked out in the coming days," said Adel al-Lami, a supervisor for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, charged with organizing the country's first democratic elections, scheduled for January. "The voting will take place in those countries with a large number of Iraqis." Those 18 and older will be eligible, he added.
The United Nations and the United States had recommended strongly against allowing expatriate voting because such polling is notoriously difficult to organize and because the process is more prone to irregularities and charges of fraud. Such problems arising could threaten the legitimacy of the election, United Nations and American officials said.
But leading Shiite and Kurdish politicians, as well as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq, strongly supported expatriate voting.
The Sunni can't be allowed to reap advantage from having oppressed the Shi'a and Kurds. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 5, 2004 10:46 AM
Heck, let's give extra votes to families for relatives who were murdered by Saddam.
Posted by: brian at November 5, 2004 2:09 PMI was readng a prewar book about European politics last night, and it got me to thinking: under Orrin's expulsionist program, why wouldn't it have made sense to expel the Poles from Poland in 1939?
Would have saved a world of trouble.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 5, 2004 3:26 PM?
Posted by: oj at November 5, 2004 4:28 PMI was just thinking it over. You're hot to drive the Sunni out of Iraq, because the neighbors covet their land and they're worthless. Reminded me of Poland.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 5, 2004 9:56 PMHarry:
No, the Sunni are an antidemocratic minority. They are the Germans. The Shi'a and Kurds are the Poles. No one need sacrifice their nation's future to a dysfunctional minority.
Posted by: oj at November 6, 2004 8:18 AMI believe that's how Hitler looked at it, too.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 7, 2004 1:50 AMThe Poles were the majority in Poland, not the Germans.
Posted by: oj at November 7, 2004 8:57 AMThe Maronites are the majority where they live, too, but you want them to be moved out.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 7, 2004 2:36 PMOops, I see my post implies that I agree with you that the Poles were a majority in Poland. Doubtful.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 7, 2004 2:38 PM