Turnout in Iraq

Overall, the turnout looks higher than expected, according to the Washington Post: Election officials said they expect the final results to show a higher-than-expected turnout among the nation’s 14 million eligible voters, although Sunni Arabs are believed to have voted in much smaller numbers than the Shiites or Kurds. But allegations are surfacing about vote-counting … Continue reading “Turnout in Iraq”

Overall, the turnout looks higher than expected, according to the Washington Post:

Election officials said they expect the final results to show a higher-than-expected turnout among the nation’s 14 million eligible voters, although Sunni Arabs are believed to have voted in much smaller numbers than the Shiites or Kurds.

But allegations are surfacing about vote-counting issues in Mosul:

Sunni politicians complain that voting irregularities in Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city with a mostly Sunni population, deprived many Sunni Arabs, as well as Kurds and Christians, of their right to vote. The election commission has sent a team to Mosul to investigate.

It’s probably not as bad as Seattle, but these things do have to be investigated.

New York Times says polling places in Kurdish parts of mainly-Sunni Mosul were closed:

A member of the election commission, Safwat Rashid, a 59-year-old lawyer from Sulaimaniya, in the Kurdish region, was evasive about the turnout, implying it might end up significantly lower than the initial estimate. The figure has been see-sawing as a result of protests being fielded by the commission about irregularities in the voting and in some of the counting. There was also a dispute in Mosul involving large numbers of would-be voters in mainly Kurdish districts who had found polling centers closed, or with too few ballot papers to accommodate an unexpectedly large number of voters. “Only God Almighty knows the final turnout now,” Mr. Rashid said.

This is too much like Seattle, home of the Great Northwestern Coup of 2005, for comfort.