Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(February 2005)
An ex-Brit gives his views - (without
fear or favor) - of the American Scene
The
up-coming election in American Occupied Iraq:
Election
facts courtesy of The US Department of State. www.whitehouse.gov
6,000 voting centres, (give or take a few).
18,900
registered candidates, (comprising 256 political entities,
made up of 196 parties, 33 coalition of parties, and
27 individuals).
A recent report quotes that 30,000 polling stations will be open in Iraq on
Sunday the 30th of January, 2005.
It has also been reported that a high proportion of the fourteen, or is it
fifteen million, Iraqis have registered to vote, but the number that will actually
vote is undetermined. Even if the voting public does get to the election places
in one piece, they will be faced with little or no knowledge of who the candidates
are, and what they stand for.
Incidentally additional voting stations have been set up in several places
in America, Great Britain, and twelve other countries to enable registered
Iraqi national expatriates residing in these countries to vote in the Iraqi
election.
 Due to the unstable situation in Iraq I will not attempt
to predict the outcome of this so-called election, but
I would suggest that Iraq can an expect a Shiite majority,
and presumably the powerful Iranian born religious leader,
the Ayatollah Ali Sistani, will become the spiritual
leader and institute an Islamic State similar to the
one commanded some years ago by the Iranian religious
leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Secondly if a Shiite
majority becomes the dominant power in the Iraqi National
Congress they obviously will be challenged by the Sunni
militants and the killing and anarchy will continue.
We must remember that one symbolic election does not a Democracy make - It
will be very interesting to see what the future holds for the Iraqi people.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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