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Everything You Need To Know
About Iraq's "Elections"

By Layla Anwar

10 February, 2010
Layla Anwar Blog

OK first and foremost, most important piece of news, confirmed news, which you will obviously not be reading about in your media. -- for the month of January 2010 ALONE, there has been over 1625 sectarian arrests.

I can give you the breakdown and names by province. But I really have no time to translate the whole article. And I only have two hands and am getting zero help from anyone.

Sectarians arrests plus death threats against secular candidates plus the gunning down of one female candidate in Mosul --- not a good start, you must agree...

And even though the ban on over 500 candidates has been revoked, the Shiite parties are staging demonstrations asking for the ban to be reintroduced.

From all the information I have managed to gather and this is going to be a tough job until the 7th of March, set date for the so-called elections, provided that they will actually take place...so from my understanding of events and this has been corroborated by several Iraqi observers and analysts --- the De-Baathification committee ---set up under the fraudulent, gun,.bible toting Bremer -- now called Justice and Accountability led by Ahmed Chalabi and his mate Al-Lami is playing a major role in the " preparatory" process for the upcoming elections.

A bit of history/info on the De-Baathification i.e "Justice and Accountability" committee.

1- It's function was theoretically for one year only. 7 years down the line and this committee is still very much active.

2 - It was supposed to be voted in by the Iraqi parliament in order for it to legitimately exercise its powers - something which has has NOT taken place till this date.

3 - In order to circumvent these legal points i.e it's illegality, a sub committee was formed called , a sort of supervision committee made up of /7 members - and presided by both Chalabi and his "friend" Al-Lami.
The members of this sub-committee are all active judges in the Iraqi courts. This means that even at the highest level of Iraqi Jurisdiction and legal system , this J & A committee is active.

4 - One of the clauses of this committee is (textual translation) -- Anyone who has any affinity with the ideological principles of Arab Unity and/or Socialism is considered a Baathist. This means in effect, that any person who is not a Baathist, nor was a Baathist, can be considered a Baathist and consequently be banned and "penalized" by this committee.

5) Another example that you really need to pay attention to : let's say for example you want to sell or buy property. Before you can actualize your real estate transaction, it has to be submitted to the J&A committee. If it suspects that you are a "Baathist" then you are stripped of your property rights. And this is how many real estate properties -- lands, houses have been illegally appropriated by the current puppet regime and its Shiite parties. Again, I have many detailed articles on land/property appropriation, all in Arabic and frankly I have no time to translate any of them. Point is : am not inventing stuff here.

6) Iraqi observers, even those who are not Baathist and even those who did not approve of Saddam Hussein, agree that the J & A is totally backed by Iran and is acting upon Iran's directives.

7) Contrary to what most people like to believe, the U.S backs this committee as well. The latest statement by the U.S ambassador to Iraq - C.Hills, was in agreement that " no Baathist" should ever stand for elections. And by Baathist, C.Hills was referring to the J & A definition of what a Baathist is . (See point 4.)

8) The revoking of the ban on the 500 or so secular candidates and their permission to run for elections, comes with a condition - the condition is agreed upon by both Shiite parties and the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) and this condition says : Candidates are allowed to run for elections. And if they win, they will have to be screened for past Baathist ties. And only then will they be allowed to take up office.


Which means in effect - any secular candidate who does win the election, is not guaranteed a seat in parliament unless he/she goes through the "screening process" . Seeing that it is the J & A who does the screening process, you can already imagine what the results will be.

The above is important information am relaying to you because it shows the extent to which the Shiite parties and by implication Iran is embedded in the Iraqi political decision making process, right up to the highest echelons of the State apparatus including its Judiciary.

Having said that, I will now give you numbers. And you will also understand the extent of this election farce.

These numbers are official numbers as given by the Iraqi government :

- 6'500 candidates for
- 350 parliamentary seats
- 50'000 voting locals inside of Iraq
- 320'000 "observers".

- Iraqi army and police which make up 1 million individuals will be voting in separate ballots.- important to remember this point, bearing in mind that army and police are most, if not all, affiliated to the Shiite parties.

- and now for the last point and a very important one too : again as per official government figures only 18 million Iraqis are eligible to vote BUT 26 million voting cards have been issued so far. Observers ask why this is so - hope you do too.

And in conclusion, yesterday Al-Maliki warned in a press conference : " Let it be known that any Baathist will be meeting a black fate in the New Iraq "- Translation : Anyone who is anti-Shiite parties and anti-Iran will be eliminated, physically eliminated....

Congratulations on the new democracy of the new Iraq.

 


 

 


 

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