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Sunnis abroad express desire to participate DAMASCUS- Majdoline Hatoum While Iraqi Sunnis are expected to boycott the country’s landmark elections later this month, Sunnis residing in neighboring countries, particularly in Syria, are expected to take part in the polls, according to the organizers of the Iraq Out-of-Country-Voting (OCV) program. Iraqis scattered across the globe, from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-assyrian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSunnis abroad express desire to participate<\/SPAN><\/p>\n
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\nDAMASCUS- Majdoline Hatoum<\/SPAN>
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\nWhile Iraqi Sunnis are expected to boycott the country’s landmark elections later this month, Sunnis residing in neighboring countries, particularly in Syria, are expected to take part in the polls, according to the organizers of the Iraq Out-of-Country-Voting (OCV) program. Iraqis scattered across the globe, from <\/SPAN>
“Iraqis from all ethnic and religious groups are very enthusiastic about getting the chance to vote,” explains Luis Martinez-Betanzos, head of the Iraq OCV program in <\/SPAN>
?<\/SPAN>“Whether they are Christians, Sunnis or Shiites, they have expressed their desire to participate in the voting process taking place by the end of the month,” says Martinez-Betanzos. Sunni Muslims, who make up about 20 percent of the Iraqi population, have grown increasingly estranged following the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime which also increased the political clout of the Shiite community.? Almost all of the country’s leading Sunni politicians have called for either postponing the elections or boycotting them. Given the violence in Sunni areas, even voters who wish to take part may hesitate to turn out. In some places, the polls may not open at all. But Martinez-Betanzos insists the boycott only applies to Sunnis in <\/SPAN>
“I don’t think we will face this problem here in <\/SPAN>
“More than 1,000 Iraqis residing in <\/SPAN>
He also said that these elections – which will take place in 14 countries around the world from Jan. 28 to Jan. 30 – would face international monitoring, as well as observation from Iraqi political parties present in <\/SPAN>
“The European Union is monitoring in <\/SPAN>
“But the most important thing is the Iraqi observation; we have Iraqi groups learning understanding and observing the elections, which will be a historic event in the new <\/SPAN>
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\n14-1-2005 <\/SPAN>
\nܢܗܪܝܐ <\/SPAN><\/P>
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