The following article was published by GlobalPolitician.com

The 2005 provincial elections in Iraq kindled months of sectarian violence and bloodshed. On election day alone, forty-four people lost their lives in tumultuous circumstances. In sharp contrast, the 2009 provincial elections, which mark just the third time that Iraqis have gone to the polls since the fall of Saddam Hussein, passed off without major incident. Almost 6500 polling centres across 14 of the 18 Iraqi provinces hosted the voting, each provided with exceptional security. The BBC reported polling day as “strangely quiet”, unfolding in an “almost festive” atmosphere.

The obstacles that the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) has successfully surmounted over the last four years have been formidable. However, and without undermining such palpable progress, the peaceful picture projected by many media outlets conceals and contributes to the grave disappointment and frustration felt by many hundreds of eligible voters who were turned away from the ballot box. A substantial proportion of those denied the right to vote were Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), people forced to flee their homes but who remain within Iraq’s borders. If domestic peace and democracy are to be more than tokenistic, Iraq cannot disregard the problems faced by IDPs on polling day.

In 2006, Iraq was host to 1.2 million IDPs. During the Baath regime, major displacement occurred as a result of government policy to modify the ethnic make-up of several regions, particularly those in possession of lucrative natural resources. Further population shifts occurred in the wake of the 2003 invasion. However, since 2006, concentric waves of targeted, sectarian violence and aggression have forcibly scattered a further 1.6 million people across the country.

The Iraqi government promised IDPs the right to participate in the 2009 elections. Commendable provisions were made including the establishment of special IDP polling stations in the four provinces where elections had been postponed so as to allow the casting of absentee ballots. However, widespread confusion, conflicting information and a shortage of ballot papers withdrew this democratic right from many hundreds of people.

Our joint UNPO-ACE election observation team witnessed large groups of IDPs who had been turned away from voting centres in the Nineveh Plain, Ninewa province. Some had been told they had the wrong documentation, but were still denied entry when they returned with the requested papers. Other IDPs told us they had been told to go back to the turbulent city of Mosul to vote, the town from which the majority had fled just three months earlier following a series of violent attacks on Christian residents. Most were too afraid of returning to even contemplate making the trip. The one man we met who had chosen to return was turned away on arrival and told to vote in his new area of residence. That centre too had passed him on to another. One smiling polling centre manager told us at the end of the day that his centre had been problem-free, which he tellingly equated with the fact it had not been designated as an IDP voting location.

Frustration and anger simmered in the voices of IDPs who had waited all day in the hope that their papers would be accepted. Others remained passive and resigned, almost as if being turned away merely confirmed longstanding beliefs that they would be inhibited from exercising their democratic rights that day.

Tackling the mesh of obstacles that IDPs faced on election day is especially important for three main reasons.

First, IDPs are by their very nature a disenfranchised population, regardless of whether they participate in elections or not. The threats to their personal security that forced them to flee constitute an initial violation of their human rights. Subsequent violations include substandard living conditions endured in exile and limited access to health care and education . Inhibiting their right to vote is not only an additional violation of rights, but a confiscation of their democratic, non-violent method of redressing the situation.  

Second, a disproportionate number of IDPs are from ethnic and religious minority groups. Whilst ethnic and religious minorities comprise between 3 and 5% of the Iraqi population, the International Organization of Migration calculates that ChaldoAssyrians, Shabaks, Yazidis and Turkmen constitute around 8.5% of the total number of IDPs . In some regions however, these figures are dramatically magnified. Between 96% and 99% of all IDPs in the three districts that form the Nineveh plain in the hotly contested Ninewa province belong to these minority groups .  In order to make the dream of a unified and inclusive Iraq a reality, these populations must have the opportunity to meaningfully engage with local and national political processes.

Third, IDP voting centres are particularly vulnerable to fraud and malpractice. IDPs are less likely to assert their voting rights if given contradictory information by centre officials. Indeed, as dusk fell in Batnaya, Telkaif district, our team witnessed large gatherings of IDPs, many of whom had travelled several hours to get there and who had stayed all day in the hope that new information from Baghdad would allow them to cast their vote. Inside, the ballot box had already been sealed with more than half an hour of nationwide voting remaining. Station officials stated that they had run out of ballot papers, but later on we saw 6 pads of surplus ballot papers being packed away. In the voter register, several pages of handwritten entries had been recorded at the back. One IDP told us that at around 4pm station officials had finally said they could vote if they wrote down their details and signed against their name, contravening official electoral regulations. Once a large number of IDPs had done so, “new information” was allegedly received from Baghdad saying that they could not vote after all. It is feared that the ballot box was later stuffed with papers that were attributed to the IDPs whose signatures were in the book. In light of the vulnerability of IDPs and the susceptibility of IDP voting centres to malpractice, greater protection and observation of the centres is undoubtedly a priority.

The Nineveh Plain was victim to widespread polling irregularities in 2005, which the US State Department attributed to “administrative breakdowns on voting day and the refusal of Kurdish security forces to allow ballot boxes to pass to predominantly Christian villages” . The Plain is the only area in Iraq where neither Arabs nor Kurds form the majority. It borders Kurdistan but is officially part of the Sunni dominated Ninewa province. In this area, IDPs and minorities have become pawns trapped in the figurative and geographical centre of a long-standing dispute between the Kurdish Regional government (KRG) and the majority Sunni Arab population. The former are striving to incorporate the Plain into their official territory - an objective vehemently opposed by the latter. Rather than pander to the minorities and IDPs to win their votes, it seems as though their votes have been identified as amassable through other means.

It is disappointing, but instructive that the same area appears to have been host to yet more fraudulent tactics four years after the last elections. For the IDPs, it is yet another chain in a cyclical process of marginalization. For Iraq, it is a stark warning against the premature heralding of national cohesion and democracy. International stakeholders and media outlets may be eager to portray an image of an emerging democracy, but Iraq cannot afford to lapse into complacency. The Iraqi presidential elections, which are scheduled for later this year, must ensure that disenfranchised communities are not forced to register their disappointment and frustration through avenues other than the ballot box.

SOURCES

1 BBC News, "Peace and Quiet Mark Iraq Polls", 1st February 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7863441.stm

2 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Challenges of Forced Displacement within Iraq, 29 December 2008, http://www.internaldisplacement. org/8025708F004BE3B1/(httpInfoFiles)/07A9E0C588CD5FECC12575240047DB82/$file/Iraq_Overview_Dec08.pdf

33 International Organization of Migration (IOM), Iraq Displacement and Return 2008 MidYear Review, 30 June 2008 http://www.internaldisplacement. org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpDocuments)/3D4E8AEED4BBE70CC125748F0038A028/$file/Iraq+Displacement+Mid-Year+Review+2008+(2).pdf

4 The Iraqi Displaced, http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/wdc/iraq_displacement/index.html?SITE=AP (accessed 20/02/09)

5 US State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61689.htm Maggie Murphy is a member of the joint Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Assyria Council for Europe Election Observation Mission deployed in Ninewa Province during Iraq's 2009 Provincial Elections.

Maggie Murphy was a member of the joint Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization - Assyria Council for Europe Election Observation Mission deployed in Ninewa Province during Iraq’s 2009 Provincial Elections.