Washington Post Admits Positives in Iraq Vote
October 25, 2005, 9:47 pm |
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While the historic passage of Iraq’s first democratically approved constitution was barely a footnote to mainstream evening news programs, the Washington Post today admitted some positives:
But while there is still anecdotal evidence of vote tampering, no credible evidence of widespread fraud has yet emerged. Western diplomats say they hope that the Sunnis’ strong voter turnout — 88 percent of the voters cast ballots in the Sunni-majority province of Salahaddin, for instance — indicates their rejection of violence and support for political means to bring change. And some Sunnis said Tuesday they are looking forward to improving their membership in parliament in December’s elections.
It galls me to no end that terrorist violence is front-page news, but Iraqis braving that same violence is not. Some 63% of Iraq’s million registered voters cast ballots — that’s 9.765 million people.
This discovery of democracy by Arabs/Muslims is no less significant than the revolution inspired by John Locke and set in motion by our Founding Fathers.
Related: Iraq
October 28th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
[…] Iraqis are learning the intricacies of democratic politics, as “accountability has taken root in Iraqi.” Coalitions are being formed and reshuffled. Pundits are speculating on party endorsements. A free press is flourishing. Millions have voted in two rounds of elections. Sunnis participated big-time in most recent elections, allaying all the hand-wringing about whether they were “engaged.” With a new constitution ratified – the vote endorsed by the UN – Iraqis are entering the final stretch in proving that democracy can work in an Arab country (the Lebanese have recently proved that, too). […]
November 17th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
[…] Iraqis are learning the intricacies of democratic politics, as “accountability has taken root.” Coalitions are being formed and reshuffled. Pundits are speculating on party endorsements. A free press is flourishing. Millions have voted in two rounds of elections. Sunnis participated big-time in most recent elections, allaying all the fears about whether they were “engaged” (the link is from Aljazeera). With a new constitution ratified — the vote endorsed by the UN — Iraqis are entering the final stretch in proving that democracy can work in an Arab country (the Lebanese have recently proved that, too). […]