Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
As we approach the date, December 15, 2005, of coming parliamentarian elections in Iraq, Iraqi voters, including our Assyrian people, will elect a new Iraqi National Assembly, which will plan the future of Iraq for the coming four years. The importance of the coming elections is that the new assembly will adopt a new constitution that will organize the structure and the future political system in Iraq. It is very important that the Assyrians, also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs, involve themselves in the elections to guarantee our proper representation in proportion to our political and social weights in Iraq.
The Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) tried to work with all political groups to have one national slate to represent all groups but we failed toward that end for different reasons. However the AUA believes that the Assyrian political organizations should put their persistent differences to one side and agree on how to achieve national reconciliation and ask the supporters of all slates to show their solidarity for the sake of our nation.
Although the AUA have some reservations on the new constitution, which was adopted through a national referendum held on October 15, 2005, we think it is very important that our people seize the opportunity of the elections to show their support toward building an Iraq constituted on principles of democracy, human rights, and equality for all citizens, irrespective of their ethnic background or religion; an Iraq that is democratic, multiethnic and based on the rule of law; an Iraq that enjoys full sovereignty and territorial integrity. Furthermore, we hope that the new national assembly will look into our concerns and revise a few articles in the constitution that we have reservations about. In addition to other points or concerns of other segments of Iraqi society, the constitution should provide a basis for a new and democratic Iraq.
As we follow the developments of the election process and the preparation for it, the AUA is worried about the administration of the elections after our people in Nineveh province were forbidden to vote for the new constitution and in the last elections. However this case is very well known to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI), and to the Iraqi government and the allied forces. Our people in Diaspora will play a major role in the coming elections, especially in adjustment of substitutional seats, which will be distributed on the national level. We should not be discouraged because of the previous elections, and by now we know that our vote would make a difference. We have to organize ourselves through our national and political organizations to increase the percentage of voting which will add to the previous number.
It is our moral obligation to participate and vote in the coming elections for capable individuals that will be able to represent our aspirations, patriotic, national and human rights, in addition to their obligations to work for a new Iraq. Our people must put our prosperity and survival ahead of everything else. If we do not, history will never forgive us. It is the existence of a nation that is at stake, and we must rise to the occasion, put our trivial differences aside and work together for the Assyrian people in particular and the Iraqi people in general.
Executive Committee of the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA)
December 2, 2005
