State of their nation: Day 5

State of their nation: Day 5

By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

There’s just one day left until regional elections in 14 out of Iraq’s 18 provinces. So who doesn’t vote? Well, the three northern provinces controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government will have their own local elections later this year; and Tamim Province is exempt this time round (the city of Kirkuk is claimed by three different ethnic groups, so I guess it just seems easier not to have elections there in case of any potential trouble)!

Each day this week we’ve been asking Iraqis what they think about a range of issues.

Today, they get the chance to speak out about elections, politics, different parties, personalities and democracy. As usual, we’ve got quite a range of voices: from people who applaud the introduction of democracy in Iraq, to one man who says he’d like all the political parties to combine into one single party with just one leader (mmm… paging Saddam Hussein anyone?!)

What we’re seeing in Iraq this time is a real interest in the electoral process – there are more than 14,000 candidates running for just 444 seats. That’s a lot of people who want to have a say in the future running of their regions. All across Baghdad there are colorful election posters competing for attention, and on TV voter education ads play alongside soap operas and political broadcasts. For me, it’s been fun to watch the Iraqis get wrapped up in the process. Tomorrow, it will be fun watching them cast their ballots (hopefully) in a peaceful atmosphere.