· Iraqis Vote in Historic Election toward Freedom, Democracy

Dec. 18, 05

Iraqi election worker examines the identification cards of voters at a polling station in Baquba, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad December 15, 2005. Polls opened on Thursday in Iraq's first election for a full four-term parliament since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Some 15 million people are eligible to vote in an election which Iraqis hope will end decades of suffering, lift living standards and pave the way for a withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. (Photo: Reuters / Bob Strong)

Iraqis Vote in Historic Election toward Freedom, Democracy
Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005

Polling stations in Iraq opened to the population Thursday for the historic parliamentary election. Insurgent attacks reportedly light and failed to discourage the millions of Iraqis from casting their ballots.

"We are living through a watershed moment in the story of freedom," said President George Bush on Wednesday. "Most of the focus now is on this week's elections - and rightly so. Iraqis will go to the polls to choose a government that will be the only constitutional democracy in the Arab world."

Up to 15 million Iraqis will be seating a full-term parliament from among 7,655 candidates. Officials reported Sunnis have been turning out in large numbers in an effort to take a larger role in the current Shiite controlled government.

Iraqi expatriates have also contributed their votes from around the world, including the United States. Many expressed their eager will to cast their ballots and ink their fingers purple with democracy in sight for Iraq. Voting began earlier this week for Iraqi expatriates.

With hopes to place at least a few Christian representatives in the 275-seat parliament, which will make amendments to the constitution that was adopted in October, Iraqi Christians have also made efforts to rally votes within their community of Chaldeans, Assyrians and others.

"We're hoping that there will be at least two or three [Christian] representatives in the new parliament," said Dr. Eden Naby, project director of Assyrian Family Records.

Naby expressed greater concern, however, over the Iraq constitution and the direction it will be led to with the newly elected government, which will form a committee to come up with recommendations on amending the document.

"The biggest problem is the revision of the constitution because right now, it's heading toward Shari'a law," said Naby.

"Without the adoption and implementation of a U.S.-led international policy that would bring religious freedom to Iraq and to all the Muslim dominated countries of the Middle East, the 20th century process of pushing native Christians westward and funneling them out of the area...will continue," she said during a discussion on worldwide religious persecution in an event sponsored by Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom and the Congressional Working Group on Religious Freedom Wednesday.

Bush took responsibility for going into Iraq on faulty intelligence. But he defended his decision describing his motives to protect the American people and for a free and democratic Iraq.

"We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator," he said. "So we're helping the Iraqi ­ Iraqi people build a lasting democracy that is peaceful and prosperous and an example for the broader Middle East."
"The work ahead will also require continued sacrifice," he added. "Yet we can be confident, because history has shown the power of freedom to overcome tyranny.

"... a free Iraq will be a beacon of hope. And as the Middle East grows in liberty, the American people will become safer and our nation will be more secure."