Falluja residents question election readiness

For many, lack of basic services makes an informed vote difficult

By Arwa Damon
CNN




FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- It's been a week since Yassir Ibrahim Mohammad returned here and discovered
that his grocery store was gone. He's built another on the corner of a devastated intersection,
but laments his circumstances.

"This destruction here, you can see it with your own eyes. Come try and live this nightmare -- no
power, no water, no gas," he said. Those conditions are the aftermath of the coalition's offensive
to rout insurgents from the city.

It's the infrastructure problems that will stop Mohammad from voting Sunday, he said. Falluja's
lack of electricity has prevented him from hearing and seeing radio and television ads, there are
no election posters on the streets and none of the candidates campaign publicly in that volatile
region.

"I want to vote for someone who will benefit me, who will benefit the country. But if I can't get
any information about the candidates, I will stay home. I can't vote if I don't know who to vote
for," he said.

An unemployed schoolteacher made similar remarks. "It's not that the citizens of Falluja don't
want to vote. It's that we don't know who is running."

Sheik Ahmad Al-Janabi at the Sayyid Hussein Mosque said he supports election participation, but
will leave it to his followers to decide whether they want to vote or not.

"I don't know who to vote for, I don't know how to vote, I don't know where to vote," the sheik
said. "From what we know of elections, there are promotions, there is campaigning, there are
places to vote. A person knows who to vote for to be able to vote. Have you ever heard of going to
vote and not knowing the candidates?"

Election security

Col. Mike Schupp, commander of the Marines Regimental Combat Team 1, 1st Marine Division, said
Wednesday that Falluja will be secure and ready for elections. About 3,000 Marines and 3,000 Iraqi
security force soldiers will be on duty in the city.

Schupp said he suspects that some insurgents may be filtering back into the city with the civilian
population to conduct reconnaissance of the city and reorganize themselves.

However, there's tight security on Falluja's outskirts to prevent people from returning with
weapons.

But Lt. Col. Andy Kennedy, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines with RCT-1, said he is more
concerned about what weaponry already may be inside.

Since the end of major fighting in Falluja in November, coalition forces have found more than
1,050 weapons caches in the western portion of the city alone, Schupp said. And Marines using mine
detectors continue to find more underground.

To protect voters and poll workers, Schupp said voting stations are fortified against expected
threats, and snipers will be on duty around voting sites. Voters will go through multiple
checkpoints that have weapons- and explosives-detecting equipment. Security forces will search
ambulances and fire trucks.

The locations of voting sites remain secret, and workers from the Independent Electoral Commission
of Iraq will not arrive until 48 hours before election day.

U.S. Marines are hiring 125 citizens to work the polls in Falluja, paying them $500 for a
three-day period. Schupp said there would be a bus system in place to get citizens to the polls,
since the Iraqi government has banned civilian traffic. At one of the five checkpoints into the
city, soldiers are on the look-out for possible car bombs coming into Falluja.

Greater concerns

On the highway leading to Baghdad, Iraqi security forces at a checkpoint are searching vehicles
and handing out leaflets promoting the elections.

They said some Iraqis won't take them, and others have no interest in the upcoming voting. They
are more concerned with power and gas.

"Vote? My house is destroyed. So I vote?" asked Hatem Khalef, a resident stopped in traffic at the
checkpoint. "Go see our houses in Falluja, flattened. And they say go vote after they destroyed
our homes?"

A group of three young men, ages 19 to 21, said they want to vote.

"We all want to vote. We want Iraq to unite and have security," said Amar Hussein, one of the
three. "But we don't know anything about any of the candidates or the lists."

Lt. Hussein of the 2nd Muthanna Brigade, who is commanding the Iraqi soldiers at the checkpoint,
said that the elections are a turning point for the country and that only Iraqis can help
themselves.

He and his soldiers are assigned to secure one of the voting sites outside of Falluja on election
day.

"I have a message to my fellow soldiers who have not returned to work," Hussein said. "That no one
can protect this nation but the sons of its people."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/...eps/index.html

Prague speaks! :dancehal:

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

I suspect the voter turnout will be low in Falluja - but then the population is pretty low since we destroyed the city to save it.

I am hopeful, Ezra, that the Sunis will participate after the election - they have said that they want to be involved in building the constitution. Maybe there's hope.

Also, have you noticed the shift in the Bushie folks. For the past two months they have been saying the violence is to disrupt the election. Now Rummie tells us that the violence is to disrupt post-election Iraq.

At least Douglas Freith is leaving. Maybe Wolfie and Rummie will follow. Course nothing will change with Mr. Bush there.

__________________
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

I've actually been working if you can believe it... not so much time for keeping current.

Anyway... I forget if I mentioned this... I recently reread and rewatched 1984. It's beyond bizarre how the reality of American politics is rushing to match Orwells book.

Iraq is our ally.
We are at war with Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is our ally.
We have always been at war with Iraq.

Ezra: thought you might like to hear about the ultimate Bush hater -

http://phillyblog.com/forum/viewtopi...ghlight=#87196

This woman (since you probably didn't get the news on Prague TV) was driving along the other night when a semi flew off of the interstate and landed on her Honda Civic, squashing it to about two feet high. She survived and made her wonderful remark.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

HA!

Awesome.