Iraqi Christians claim their votes blocked

Even as Iraqi Muslims proclaimed Sunday’s elections a success, the Christians of that country complained that they were prevented from voting both in Iraq and in the United States.

Christian Assyrians, 1 million of whom reside in Iraq, claim that Kurdish officials in North Iraq blocked the delivery of ballot boxes from Assyrian-dominated villages, leaving many Assyrians disenfranchised. They also claim that election officials placed U.S. voting locations in areas that maximized the distance expatriate Assyrians had to travel.

Susan Patto, chief of staff to the secretary general of the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Iraq, said officials failed to deliver ballot boxes to five towns in the Ninevah Plain of Northern Iraq. All are predominantly populated by Christian Assyrians.

“The people of those areas went to vote. When they found there were no boxes, they headed to our centers,” Patto said.

Patto said she and others in her organization contacted officials in Mosul, but they said the security situation prevented delivery of the vote boxes. Baghdad officials then instructed election personnel in Arbil to deliver the boxes, but they failed to do so.

After the election hours ended Sunday, Patto said, a U.S. helicopter delivered four boxes, two designated for Bartella and two for Baashiqa. Election officials instructed local officials to permit three hours of voting Monday morning to make up for Sunday’s missing ballot boxes.

“The next morning people headed again for the centers, but there were no staff, no ballots and no ink ? just the boxes,” Patto said.

Give up, demonstrate

The Assyrians who had gathered to vote waited until noon before giving up, Patto said, at which time they began a demonstration.

The demonstration was squelched, Patto said, by the Kurdish militia. She said the Kurds beat an Assyrian city council member from Baghdida during the demonstration by breaking all his teeth.

Other Assyrian-populated towns had ballot boxes, but an inadequate supply of ballots, she said.

All told, Patto estimated voting irregularities prevented 50,000 Assyrians from voting.

Frederick Aprim, who lives in an Assyrian community in California, said the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq chose the five U.S. polling locations with deference to expatriate Kurdish populations, but failed to locate polls close to larger Assyrian communities.

Officials located one poll in Nashville, which has a Kurdish population of about 4,000. About 38,000 Assyrians live in the northern half of California, but the closest polling place was in Southern California.

IECI did not immediately return telephone calls or e-mails Tuesday.

Out-of-country voting

In literature distributed to Iraqi expatriates, the IECI said, “Given that the decision to offer out-of-country voting was taken only a short time before the election it was a choice between an imperfect system, which still allows a great number of Iraqis outside the country to vote, or no voting outside Iraq at all. The IECI made the choice that it was better to offer the opportunity to vote to some rather than none.”

Aprim said he had to travel 800 miles, round trip, to the Los Angeles polling site, to register for the election. He had to repeat the trip a few days later to vote.

“Many Assyrians got discouraged from making the long trip,” Aprim said. “Many elderly could not make the trip. Many (poor Assyrians) could not make the trip. Assyrians lost so many votes because of this unfair distribution of voting centers.”

Aprim said Iraq’s interim government includes Assyrians, but because the interim constitution declares Islam to be the official religion, Assyrians fear continued discrimination and oppression.

Aprim said the blocked votes would prevent Assyrian representation from Ninevah Plain in the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly, the political body that will determine if the Iraq constitution adopts Islam as the new Iraq’s official religion.

Patto said the blocked votes hurt not just Iraqi Christians, but Iraq as a whole.

“It is not just the number of seats (on the National Assembly). We want to establish a new country that believes in human rights and democracy, and (in which) people are equal and have the same rights,” Patto said.

“We want to build it together with all Iraqis.”