To be fair, after Iraq’s parliamentary elections in December, the New York Times published a few positive articles about the historic vote. But the Grey Lady has slipped back into its old ways. In an article, innocuously titled “Iraqi Parties Try to Lay Foundation for Broad Coalition,” the Times gets in a few unsubstantiated digs about accusations of “fraud” in the December ballot, despite the fact that no evidence of improprieties has been brought to light. From the Times:

Saleh Mutlak, the leader of the Iraqi National Trend, a Sunni-dominated party, has made the most sweeping allegations of voter fraud. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Mutlak said that Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni parties had intimidated voters, destroyed ballots and stuffed some polling centers with more ballots than there were voters.

Some of the worst fraud, Mr. Mutlak said, had occurred in Diyala Province, where, he said, Kurdish militiamen had threatened some Arab voters and chased others from the polling places. In the mixed Arab-Kurdish city of Mosul, he said, Kurdish militiamen had prevented many Iraqi Arabs from voting.

But Mr. Mutlak seemed to hold scant faith that his allegations would be heard. Witnesses were afraid to come forward, he said, and the members of the Iraqi Independent Elections Commission seemed too close to the political parties to act fairly.

The Iraqi Independent Elections Commission? This is what Reuters, not exactly a pro-American journal, said about the election:

Foreign election monitors said on Friday that Iraq’s elections met international standards despite some irregularities.

“I think by and large we have come to the conclusion that basically the election and the process in place conforms to international standards,” Paul Dacey, Vice Chair of the International Mission for Iraqi Election’s (IMIE) steering committee, told Reuters in Amman.

The Canada-based multinational group of experts was based in Jordan but supervised hundreds of foreign observers and domestic monitors in Iraq.

“We have had reports of technical glitches. Any election has those but there are no gross violations we were aware of… things might come out in the next few days and we will be monitoring that,” Dacey said.

Dacey said the IMIE was heartened by reports the turnout was higher than in an October constitutional referendum and by the widespread participation of disaffected Sunni Arabs.

“Reports are saying more than two thirds (turnout) …if that’s the case it’s very encouraging and of course the participation of the Sunnis,” he said.

The UN backed Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) had performed well, he said, before and after the relatively peaceful poll that was in sharp contrast to January’s elections, when 40 people died.

“There has been an improvement in outreach and voter education. Obviously the turnout is very encouraging as well,” Dacey said.

“It’s three electoral events in one year. This is a big ask even for well established democracies. They have had a sharp learning curve and they certainly have shown us they have increased their capacity”, he added.

“They have listened to us and to others and made improvements,” said Dacey, who is deputy commissioner of the Australian Electoral Commission.

The elections were smooth despite reports of logistical problems in the Sunni Arab western desert province of Anbar, Dacey said.

“It wasn’t a flawless election. Not all elections are flawless even in established democracies. There are issues but they were planned very well. They are aware there were troublespots,” Dacey said.

Unlike January’s election when only a few foreign monitors were sent due to security concerns, the IMIE this time was able to deploy many more experts inside Iraq.

“We had about 55 in country and bearing in mind the security situation it was a pretty good effort to have 55 people in place. Last time when we only had a handful,” Dacey said.

This Grey Lady story also highlights Sunni unhappiness with the election results, which points to a sweep by Shiite and Kurdish parties. But the Financial Times reminded us that:

Turnout was particularly high in Sunni areas which largely boycotted the January election. One official said that between 75 and 80 per cent of voters had turned out in Ramadi, a centre of the insurgency west of Baghdad where only a handful had voted in previous nationwide polls.

The Times story solely quotes Mr. Mutlak, a Sunni most likely disgruntled because his party did not capture enough seats in parliament. Remember that Iraq under Saddam was dominated by an unelected Sunni minority. So all this proves is that Sunnis tried the democratic process, but did not achieve an outright victory, and are now dissatisfied. Remember how Democrats were trying to cry fowl in 2004 when Ohio turned out to be the swing state which gave President Bush a win?

Printing Mutlak’s accusations without an alternative viewpoint does not belong in a news story, as the Times presented it. Rather, this type of one-sided story belongs on the op-ed page.