Iraqi expatriates to vote in elections, hopeful new government can end bloodshed

Dec. 13, 2005

PETER PRENGAMAN

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Iraqi expatriates prepared to cast absentee ballots Tuesday in their homeland's historic parliamentary elections, hoping the nation's future leaders can curb seemingly uncontrollable violence and allow many to visit home - in some cases for the first time in decades.

Albert Rasho said he and three friends would drive from Las Vegas to Pomona to vote. Rasho, 35, fled Iraq 15 years ago to avoid mandatory military service under former dictator Saddam Hussein.

"We'll drive 250 miles and be happy about it, " said Rasho, an Assyrian Christian who owns a convenience store. "I want to see my country free after all Saddam did."

Organizers said they expect tens of thousands of Iraqis to vote Tuesday through Thursday at polling sites in Pomona, Nashville, Tenn., and others outside San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan.

The expatriates will help elect the 275-member National Assembly, which will rule the country over the next four years.

Voters will choose from more than 200 political parties that represent some 7,000 candidates.

Election Day in Iraq is Thursday, though early voting has already begun for police, soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners in jail.

Eligible expatriate voters can be American citizens, but must be 18 or over, have been born in Iraq and hold citizenship there. Iraqis born in the United States who can prove their father is Iraqi also can vote.

Like Rasho, many expatriates have not been home since fleeing Iraq. When the U.S. military toppled Hussein in 2003, many thought they could soon return and visit family still in the country. But insurgents and suicide bombers have since led daily attacks that have claimed thousands of Iraqi and U.S. lives.

"My family told me not to come because of the situation," said Ridiya Al-Marayati, 62, a Shiite Pomona housewife who canceled a trip to visit her sister and elderly mother in Baghdad last year.

Only about 10 percent of the estimated 240,000 eligible Iraqi voters in the United States cast ballots last January for a constitutional assembly, Iraq's first free elections in decades.

Organizers said the numbers will be much higher this time because at stake is a permanent government and expatriates can register and vote on the same day. Last time they had to make two trips.

"We've got people calling from as far away as Canada, saying they plan on coming to vote," said Mosadek Alattar, who is in charge of California voting sites. "This is becoming like a celebration for us."