2010/03/30
True tests of elections
A FEW weeks before the March 7 parliamentary polls in Iraq, American ambassador Christopher Hill opined that the true test of elections in a democracy does not lie in the behaviour of the winners but in the behaviour of the losers. On this score, it would appear that a rocky road lies ahead for the fledgling democracy as the losers in the elections have been behaving badly. Nouri al-Maliki, whose State of Law party came second in the vote tally, alleges fraud, refuses to accept the results released on Friday, insists they remain "preliminary", and intends to challenge the count through the courts, though investigations into hundreds of allegations of ballot fixing have not turned up anything that would significantly change the outcome, and international observers have satisfied themselves that there have been no signs of widespread vote-rigging.
To be sure, any electoral process provides for appeals against the results. As elsewhere, when the contest has been combative and the race too close to call, there would be claims of irregularities. When he appeared to be behind in the first set of results, Iyad Allawi, whose coalition eventually emerged with a plurality of the seats, also cried foul play. But this is Iraq, not elsewhere, where ballots instead of bullets have been of recent vintage, and the shooting war has not completely replaced the battle at the ballot box, as the recent killing of a politician and a party partisan illustrates. As such when the incumbent prime minister issues a dark warning linking tainted votes to a "return to violence", refuses to leave office without a fight and is scheming to have the first crack at forming a government, the days ahead may yet prove dire for a peaceful and democratic transfer of power. In any case, even if Maliki were to pass this test for losers, with a razor-thin two-seat advantage, Allawi faces the stiff test that the margin of his victory and the fragmented nature of the political landscape brings to the task of assembling the required 163-seat majority within 30 days.
The 11 million Iraqi voters have made their voices heard at the ballot box and it is time for the politicians to pay heed to them. But as important as losing with grace and accepting the verdict of the voters is as a measure of the success of elections in Iraq, the ultimate litmus test would be for democratic processes and institutions to make a difference in the everyday lives of ordinary Iraqis.
http://www.nstp.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/18ldige/Article/index_html
