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January 27, 2005

Quotes from Iraq’s First Televised Electoral Debate

The National Review gives us a fascinating look at what happened in Iraq’s first televised presidential debate:

The participants represented six major tickets (essentially, coalitions of parties). Iraq’s future assembly will have 275 seats. More than 4,000 candidates have assembled in “coalition lists,” or blocs representing ethnic, ideological, and political interests. The participants in the televised debate represented the leading blocs. In their opening remarks they proclaimed their often differing “main principles of action.”

Jawad al Maliki, representing the Iraqi United Coalition (al I’tilaf al Iraqi al Muwahad) emphasized the necessity of elections: “Those who called for it are larger in numbers. Those who wanted to postpone them feared the terrorists, and those who wanted to cancel them, are the terrorists,” he said. It’s worth noting that al Maliki represents an Islamist Shia party. He concluded that elections are the beginning of the solution, not the end of it.

Hajim Husseini, representing Iraqiyun (“Iraqis”) said most Sunni Arabs are not boycotting voluntarily. Instead, they are under terrorist threat. He added that after elections Sunnis will be integrated into the national government.

Adnan Pashaji, a Sunni leader from the dimucratoyeen al mustaqileen, or the “Gathering of Independent Democrats,” did admit to having political reasons for calling for the postponement of the elections. He hoped he would convince more of his community to participate.

Ibrahim Salih of the Tahaluf al kurdistani, or “Kurdistani Alliance,” reminded the viewers that elections are not happening in an ideal situation. “We are facing international terrorism and the former regime’s forces. The main Iraqi leadership decided to go for elections to move forward, but there will be mechanisms to absorb those who won’t be able to join us, including a referendum next November.”

Qassim Daoud of the al Qaima al Iraqiya , or “Iraqi ticket,” said elections are needed to establish a national authority.

Hamid Majid Musa, representing Ittihad al Shaab, or “People’s Union,” strongly supported the holding of elections. Expressing the aspirations of most leftist and liberal forces in Iraq, he said elections now are better than no elections.

The debate covered several subjects, the most pertinent being:

1: Sunni participation and civil war: All candidates agreed on absorbing Sunnis after the elections with a strong consensus that civil war won’t be allowed.

There’s more. Read the whole thing. I’ll include one more quote:

7. Women: In an amazing volley of statements all six politicians lent support to “an increasing role for women.” It’s simple: Iraq’s female population is the single largest voting bloc across ethnicities.

Bingo—democracy gives power to the disenfranchised.