KurdistanObserver.com

KDP and PUK Unprepared for Arab Iraq's Dirty Tricks in Sham Elections

Mosul: Many Votes, and Glitches for the Kurds

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

 January 30, 2005

MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 30 - At 7 a.m., Khaled Kazar, an election official who had to be shipped in from Baghdad because the Mosul employees had resigned several weeks ago, was taking call after call from polling centers as they opened across the city today.

"The polling centers are open and the first one to call has reported it has 15 to 20 voters lined up," Kazar said.

But even before 8:30, he was already getting reports filtering in about roadside bomb attacks, mortars and small arms fire.

"They didn't hit," said Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the American commander in Mosul, after he arrived at the election coordination center. "But that is what we think they were trying to do."

He said that early signs indicated a "good turnout" in Nineveh province. On Saturday he had said he was concerned about whether there would be good turnout at the voting booths in western Mosul, where the population is predominantly Sunni Arab.

By late afternoon, Maj. Anthony Cruz, the American liaison officer with the electoral commission in Mosul, said that there were thousands of voters appearing at each polling center "across the board."

Khasro Goran, deputy governor in Mosul, said he had reports of strong turnout and long lines from polling centers in the eastern side of the river that runs through the northern city, in predominantly Kurdish areas. But in Tahrir and the Arab neighborhoods of Zuhour and Saddam on the eastern side, "young gunmen are shooting from the streets and on the rooftops just to scare people away," he said.

"There was an imam there who called from the mosque on people not to vote," Mr. Goran said.

But Mr. Goran said that four Kurdish districts outside of Mosul - Shaikhan, Bartila, Bashika and Karakosh (also known as Hamdani) - did not receive ballot boxes or supplies, so Kurds were unable to vote there. A Kurdish Democratic Party spokesman, Mahdi Harki, said that the population in those areas was about 300,000, with at least 100,000 of those eligible to vote.

"I am afraid it was a dirty trick against the Kurdish vote," Mr. Harki said.

Mr. Goran met General Ham to discuss the problem. He said General Ham wanted to help but that it was the responsibility of the Independent Electoral Commission for Iraq to ask the military to transport the voting materials.

Mr. Kazar , the election official, said that he knew of the problem early in the morning and had asked the Americans to move the ballots.

Mr. Goran, who is a Kurd, said he believed the motivation behind the mixup was that the expected high turnout of Kurdish voters would tilt the results to heavily favor Kurds, and upset the political balance in the city. "The Kurds will have the whole percentage of the vote," he said. "There are some people here who do not want that," said Mr. Goran.

He said he was initially turned down in his request for an extension in those districts to allow Kurds to vote Monday morning. But later, the electoral commission did agree to extend voting in those areas until 10:00 on Monday. But Mr. Harki said this would still not help turnout because villagers from outlying areas could not go to the polling stations at night, leaving just a few hours in the morning.

In the town of Zuhur, an Arab voter, Fakher Fakhri, 31, said he voted for the ticket of Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister. "We tried this man," he said. "We know him. He gave salary raises to government workers and wants a national army."

He said the voting went smoothly even amid tight security. "They were searching people with new machines, even women," Mr. Fakhri said. "They were asking us to turn our mobiles off."

Another resident of the area reported that he heard gunfire. "But that's normal here," the man said.

On Kurdish television, footage from the city of Suleimaniya showed women in colorful headscarves lined up to vote. "We didn't sleep last night we were so excited," said one.

At 6 p.m., Major Cruz said that about 60 percent of the centers had turned in results in Mosul, and there were more than 53,000 votes with more to come.