Bridgewater Review Volume 25 | Issue 1 Article 6 Jun-2006 Elections, Violence and Democracy in Iraq Shaheen Mozaffar Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Recommended Citation Mozaffar, Shaheen (2006). Elections, Violence and Democracy in Iraq. Bridgewater Review, 25(1), 5-9. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol25/iss1/6 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Elections, Violence audience. I am sure you will enjoy Bill’s take on his travels in France and Democracy and his view of the French and French culture. in Iraq In the last few years Patti Fanning, Shaheen Mozaffar also of the Sociology Department, In 2005, Iraq held three successful national elections through one of Iraq’s holiest Shiite mosques in Samarra has come on board as Associate that were largely free and credible by accepted interna- on February 22, 2006, unleashing a paroxysm of retalia- Editor. Patti, brings not only her tional standards. On January 30, 58% of registered vot- tory sectarian attacks and pushing the country to the writing and editing skills to the ers went to the polls to elect the Transitional National brink of an all-out civil war. Review, but also her passion for Assembly (TNA), which wrote the new Constitution. local history, Irish studies and Iraq thus confronts a central challenge today: will its On October 15, 63% of registered voters turned out biography of Massachusetts political future be determined by the three resoundingly for the constitutional referendum to approve the new K luminaries. Her contributions successful elections held in 2005, or by the brutality and Constitution by an overwhelming margin of 79% to to the magazine have been read violence of terrorism, insurgency and sectarian conflict? NE 21%. And on December 15, 76% of registered voters A with great interest by our readers. This article answers this question through a systematic cast ballots to elect the 275-seat Council of Representa- In this issue Patti writes on the analysis and pragmatic assessment of the relationship YZ tives (COR), Iraq’s national legislature.1 R Missionary Sisters of Louisburg between elections and violence and its impact on the K Square, who were one of the first Holding three elections in one year is a daunting task prospects for democracy in Iraq. L E religious orders to minister to the even for established democracies, but it is an extraordi- THE THREE ELECTIONS African-Americans of Boston. nary feat for a country that is trying to establish a new Given the precarious security conditions caused by Patti is an Associate Editor who I democracy after three decades of tyranny while being ICHA militant insurgency and terrorist bombings, the three hope will remain with the Review wracked by terrorist bombings and violent insurgency. M Iraqi elections in 2005 were a resounding success. One for many years to come. The overall incidence and intensity of terrorist and in- factor contributing to Finally, Charles Angell, the mag- surgent attacks declined progressively on each Election this success was a rare azine’s book review editor, has Day, but the terrorists and insurgents posed an ever- manifestation of sound EVIEW present threat, intimidating, kidnapping and occasion- political judgment by R been with the Review from almost the beginning. Charlie has one of ally killing political candidates, voters, poll workers and the US when it relented the toughest jobs on the maga- election officials in the lead up to all three elections. on its initial refusal to zine—to comment on and critique the books that we members place their primary emphasis on teaching and The elections were important components of a larger allow a substantial role feel our readers need to know about. During his time as working with students, yet are so dedicated to their aca- political process designed to establish the institu- for the UN in Iraq and book review editor, Charlie has reviewed a wide range of demic disciplines that they are also scholars of the first tional and political foundations for democracy in Iraq agreed to an exclusive books from Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America to the degree, then there is no better place than Bridgewater. in the aftermath of the American-led invasion that UN role in assisting overthrew Saddam Hussein in March 2003. The COR the newly-established BRIDGEWATER BRIDGEWATER self-help manual Who Moved My Cheese to in this issue, If the Bridgewater Review has done anything over the American Vertigo, Bernard Levy’s acclaimed retracing of elections represented the final step in the formation of Independent Election last 25 years, I hope that it has been helpful in alerting Alexis de Tocqueville’s travels through America. Charlie a democratic government. But as Iraqi leaders wrangled Commission of Iraq THE the general public to the very special faculty who teach is one of the most thoughtful and erudite members of unsuccessfully over the choice of a new Prime Minister (IECI) in the organi- here. Happy Birthday Bridgewater Review, and to my fel- the faculty that I have had the pleasure of working with and the composition of the new government two zation and management of the three elections. This ING low faculty colleagues, thanks for being so special. over the years. months after the COR elections, a terrorist bomb ripped change in US policy, however, was due largely to the SH steadfast opposition of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, I As a senior member of the faculty I have been asked 1.In addition, approximately 300,000 Iraqi citizens living in 18 Iraq’s most revered Shiite religious leader and an astute on many occasions by prospective students and con- Michael Kryzanek countries across the world voted in January and December, but political strategist, to any US involvement in the elec- UBL cerned parents to tell them why they should choose Editor P not in October due to logistical constraints. Also, approximately tions because it would diminish the legitimacy of the Bridgewater State College. Of course the cost is quite 200,000 eligible voters incarcerated in prisons and deten- elections in the eyes of the Iraqis and the international attractive and the location close to home is a bonus as tion centers (under both Iraqi and US control, including the community, and to his uncompromising insistence on well. But I dwell on the faculty and give them a copy infamous Abu Ghraib prison), residing as patients in hospitals, an exclusive UN role in overseeing the elections. of the Bridgewater Review. I tell them that if their son and serving in the Iraqi police force and the military voted in EARS OF or daughter wants to go to a college where faculty The IECI, whose seven members and the Chief Electoral Y special one-day elections held prior to the regularly scheduled Officer were selected by the United Nations (UN), elections in October and December. It is not known whether 25 received the full range of organizational, technical Saddam Hussein, who was being held in a US detention center and logistical assistance that is now commonplace in and was an eligible voter, chose to exercise his franchise. For democracy promotion strategies from an International reasons of space, this article does not deal with these elections. BRIDGEWATER REVIEW JUNE 2006 5 Elections Assistance Team operating under the United In one poll, for instance, 91% of respondents favored The results in Table 2 approximate the broad sectar- January elections, but because he has a large following Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq and funded from a democracy over authoritarian rule, and 85% favored ian and ethnic divisions in Iraq, but these results also among the Shiite poor classes, he was reluctantly in- general UN fund facility with contributions from 25 democracy despite its manifest limitations.2 These obscure politically salient intra-sectarian and intra-eth- vited to join UIA for the December elections to ensure a countries, including the United States. This assistance figures also testify to the success of IECI’s new nation- nic, as well as ideological, differences within the major Shiite legislative majority after the Sunnis agreed to par- enabled the IECI to organize the three elections profes- wide security provisions and its special provisions in parties in the COR, all of which are actually coalitions ticipate in the COR elections. As the largest party in the sionally and execute them competently according to Anbar to help increase Sunni participation in October of groups representing these differences. The Kurdis- COR, the UIA has the constitutional authority to nomi- accepted international standards. and December. These provisions included: a three-ring tani Gathering, for instance, consists of two tradition- nate a candidate for Prime Minister for final approval by security perimeter around polling stations manned by ally antagonistic Kurdish parties – the Patriotic Union the COR. In the ensuing fight for the nomination, the Amidst escalating terrorist and insurgent attacks, the all-Iraqi security forces, backed with unobtrusive US of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party—and al-Sadrites’ control of 32 COR seats was indispensable IECI conducted a successful voter registration exercise military support, for three days before and after Election includes a moderate religious party. But the Kurds are in al-Jaafri’s unexpected victory by one vote over Adel in November 2004, registering 14.3 million voters, Day; coordination with local leaders, and even with also represented by the fundamentalist Islamic Union Abdel-Mahdi of SCIRI, who was supported by other which represented a substantial percentage of eligible some Sunni insurgents (via mediation by Sunni politi- of Kurdistan, with 5 COR seats.