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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Democracy Iraqi style
By Salah Hemeid
If not for the devastating UN economic sanctions and the 10-year crisis in Iraq's relations with the United States, few would have taken notice of the country's general elections held on Monday. Indeed, this is even more true when one compares Iraq's elections with the drama and intrigues that surrounded last month's vote in neighbouring Iran.
Uday after casting his ballot
(photo: AFP)
Iraq has been ruled for the past 32 years by a single party, and led for the last 21 years by President Saddam Hussein. Since 1982 elections have been held every four years for the National Assembly, a legislative council with limited power. Candidates for the body's elections have been carefully hand-picked from among members of the ruling Ba'ath Party or other regime loyalists.
In fact, Iraqis who went to the polls on Monday were told bluntly by their government that they should not take the elections as an indicator that their country is heading towards a full-fledged democracy -- a system that Iraqi leaders frequently deride as a Western-inspired notion. "These elections are an expression of our own democracy which is based on our traditions, norms, values and our noble heritage," President Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim, told a gathering of party and state officials on the eve of polling. "We are true democrats and we are more able to define its [democracy's] meaning," Ibrahim continued in remarks carried by the Iraqi News Agency.
Following elections, regime figures promised to initiate political reforms that will include drawing up a permanent constitution, permitting the establishment of political parties and allowing freedom of expression.
Under Iraq's elections law, all candidates for the 250-seat assembly must be vetted by a special Interior Ministry committee to assure their loyalty to the ruling party and their adherence to the principles of the 1968 coup which brought the Ba'ath Party to power. They must also prove that they served in the army or the para-military militias and fought both in the 1980-1988 war against Iran and in the 1991 Gulf War against the US-led international coalition following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
During the week-long election campaign, each of the 522 candidates was allowed to speak to a small audience in meetings controlled by the government and held at venues such as schools or the offices of the ruling party. Candidates seldom debated issues or answered questions from members of their constituencies, but instead sought to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. "My main activities have been to participate in national celebrations and rallies which the party holds to urge the people to remain steadfast and confront the difficulties and challenges [they face]," candidate Sabhan Khalaf Al-Jiboury was quoted as saying by Al-Thawra newspaper during a speech he made in his constituency of Hawija, north of Baghdad.
Iraq's parliamentary elections did, however, have an element of excitement created by the candidacy of President Hussein's eldest son Uday. The younger Hussein, who has been playing a major role in Iraqi politics behind the scenes, is now being touted as a potential future leader for the country.
After casting his ballot on Monday, Uday refused to confirm reports that he will be appointed as speaker of parliament which would be his first official position. But in earlier statements, Uday promised to bring real changes. "I will introduce a bold new approach into the assembly and will urge more freedoms," Uday told the Iraqi Journalists Union, which he heads, last Wednesday. In a demonstration of what he might do in the new parliament, Uday used his newspaper, Babel, as a forum from which to attack corruption, and even went as far as criticising the country's most feared intelligence agency.
But many Iraqis are sceptical that Uday will make good on his promises. They know he is his father's son and he is not expected to make any changes that will ease the grip of the ruling party on power or open a real window of opportunity for democratic reform.
Criticism of the government is hardly ever heard in public inside Iraq. Exiled Iraqi opposition groups have dismissed the elections as a sham.
Iraq's elections stand in stark contrast to those recently held in Iran, which showed the world that elections in the Middle East can be lively and driven by voters' interests. While the Iranian elections pushed moderates and reformists to the fore, and are expected to bring about drastic changes to the country's hard-line regime, it is difficult to imagine that President Hussein will open up the rigid political system which he has maintained with an iron fist for more than two decades.
