Baghdad with one day to the Elections

     In less than 12 hours the poll station will be open. Of course there is a curfew, so we have to walk. But who cares??. This is the biggest elections any Iraqi could ever participate in. Previous elections were important, but this is the big one. This is the one that everyone has been preparing for for at least a month before.

     These elections are different. Everyone is realizing how important it is. No one is boycotting them. Everybody is going to vote, the question is, who are they going to vote for. Sadly, people in Iraq are still thinking in the way I'm-a-Sunni-I-vote-for-a-Sunni way. You can replace Sunni for Shia or Kurd. This is how it is. But yes, except for the 555 guys, most of the others are making coalitions with not just their class, but with others, some lists have a fairly good mixture of Shias-Sunnis-Kurds in them.

     So I decided I would take a walk to the nearby street, and take a photo of it, so you can see what I mean by EMPTY. By the way, I am not going to host pictures on blogger anymore, just on flickr. So they can be linked from else where. Pictures hosted on blogger do not show if they are linked to from other sites. Oh and I have made them small for the purpose of fast load, if you want more detail click on them to see a larger image. See below the empty street:

     There is a scandal that has just happened in Iraq now. With only one day to the elections, a truck coming from Iran was discovered with a full load of forged votes for.. Guess who??. Well, they have not said who, but there is really no doubt about the 555 list. Since many of it's candidates are actually Iranians. Yes I know I am going hard on them, but I just feel angry about this. Mostly because they are supposed to be the most honest, since they are religious. But no, they are not. They are depending on the masses of un-educated Shias in their campaigns. Putting pictures of Sistani in their posters, since Shias do ANYTHING he tells them to do, they put his picture so that people might vote for them.

     Oh well, I still feel optimistic about the elections. This one is different. I know I have been saying that a lot. But yes it is different. Biggest elections any Iraqi can ever participate in. Right now I have little flyers of every major list in Iraq. Sometimes I go look for them, others I just find them in my lap. Anyway, tomorrow is still the big day, so please stay tuned for my tomorrow post. Of course I will not go vote fist thing in the morning. I will wait for at least 10 AM, to see how things are, and to be hones, if they were messy, I will not go vote, sad to say. So if I go vote tomorrow, I promise you will see my finger again. Peace.

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