The elections of this Sunday confirmed the division of Iraqis between an enthusiastic majority to take part in this poll and a minority decided to boycott these elections. But Mr. Barazani creates a third category: Iraqi citizens very enthusiastic with the idea to exert their voting rights but prevented and “forced to boycott” the elections!

Thousands of voters from Chaldoassyrian towns and villages in the plains around Mosoul: Baghdeda, Karemlesh, Bartillé, Bashiqa, Bahzané and Ain Sifne (Shekhan), waited throughout Sunday in front of the polling stations without being able to achieve their voting rights because the ballot boxes and supplies (anchor, bulletins….) were not delivered to these centers.

All inquiries and requests addressed by the political parties and their candidates to the Independent Commission of Elections and to the local authorities, as well as the frequent promises that the ballot boxes would arrive soon from Arbil, remained dead letter and did not give any result.

Deprived of their civic rights, the chaldoassyrian voters descended in the streets of these towns and villages, especially in Baghdeda- the largest Chaldoassyrian town in the Ninevah plain- expressing their anger and protesting against their marginalisation and the transgression and violation of the electoral law.

This “unavailability” of the ballot boxes affected not only tens of thousands of chaldoassyrian voters but also thousands of Yezidis, Shabak, and Turkman voters.

Other violations are made in the districts of Sanjar and Telkaif, always in the north of Iraq. According to officials in charge’s of the Independent Commission of Elections, the ballot boxes had been stored in Arbil- the stronghold of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) headed by M. Barzani- one of the most controlled and safe place in the area. In blocking the delivery of the ballot boxes and supplies, The KDP prevented deliberately the vote of Chaldoassyrian Christians in the Ninevah plain in northern Iraq.

This prevention to exert the voting rights in this province populated mainly by Chaldoassyrians and with other non-Kurdish minorities masks the ambitions and political aimed shots of the two principal Kurdish parties to entirely clean the area of the indigenous Chaldoassyrian people. In addition, this systematic policy of ethnical homogenization, as a matter of fact, does not go back to yesterday but it goes back to a few decades. However, thousands of Chaldoassyrians defying the intimidation, the threats and the deteriorating security situation, went in mass and with enthusiasm to the polling stations, but the ballot boxes of vote never arrived.

The area of Ninevah Plain is touted by the majority of the Chaldoassyrian political parties, within the framework of federal Iraq, as their self- administered area according to the article 53d of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL). In this manoeuvre, the two principal Kurdish parties try to prevent any possible Chaldoassyrian representation from the Ninevah Plain in the upcoming National Assembly and in the parliament of north of Iraq.

But this does not, absolutely, decrease the responsibilities of the Independent Commission of Elections nor the temporary Iraqi Government neither the Coalition Forces in this issue.

The lack of vote in the Ninevah Plain infuriated the Chaldoassyrian communities worldwide and tarnished the promising landscape of the after Iraqi elections period.

We call upon the International Community to correct this injustice and to give the opportunity to all “forced to boycott” Iraqi citizens to exert their voting rights.

For more information and development visit the sites:

www.aina.org ; www.ankawa.com ; www.zahrira.net ; www.ado-world.com

Assyrian Democratic Organisation – Abroad Sections

Iraqi Elections Support and Follow-up Committee

01/02/2005