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Ayat Sistani renews call for participation in polls

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY KARBALA, Iraq: In a time when election preparations in Iraq reaching its final stages with opening of 900 polling stations in 14 countries, Marjaiyah Ad-Diniyah (religious authority) has renewed his call to Iraqis to fully participate in the vote scheduled for Jan. 30.

Ayatullah Sayyed Ali As-Sistani through one of his aides Sheikh Ahmed As-Safi said that everyone who would vote with intention of keeping safe the principles and rights of constitution, Allah The Almighty will reward him.

Speaking to worshippers in the Al-Imam Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) Shrine compound in the holy city of Karbala, As-Safi said it is not lawful for a husband to prevent his wife from going out for voting, rather it is binding on him to provide suitable environment so that she could feel safety on the day of elections.

Meanwhile, Iraqis in US prepare to cast ballots for homeland.

When Dr. Mahdi Abdullah lived in Iraq under Saddam, there were no free elections. So with Iraqis scheduled to go to the polls at the end of the month, the Mount Vernon doctor is determined to participate — even if it means two trips to Washington in the coming weeks.

The District of Columbia is one of five cities in the United States where Iraqi expatriates can vote, and the one closest to New York. But it requires appearing there next week to register, and again at the end of the month to vote.

Abdullah, who left Iraq in 1993 and who now lives in Queens and practices at Mount Vernon Hospital, is not deterred. "It is a little bit cumbersome," he said. "Two trips, two business days."

But, he added, "Voting and elections are the things that we missed. (Now) that we got the election, we have to use it."

Abdullah, 44, will make the 10-hour round trip with others from the Al Khoei Islamic Center. Most Iraqis he knows will not pass up the chance to cast their ballots, he said. To be sure, he has been on the phone with friends in New York and Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to urge them to the polls.

The United States is one of 14 countries where absentee ballots can be cast to elect the assembly that will draft a constitution for Iraq.

But the organization of the absentee balloting got off to a slow start. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq did not authorize it until November and until this week, Abdullah and the others still did not know where the polling sites would be.

The International Organization for Migration, the Geneva-based group overseeing the effort on behalf of the Iraqis, chose the 14 countries based on the size of their expatriate populations and says up to 1 million people could take part. In the United States, where approximately 234,000 Iraqi expatriates live, balloting is also planned for Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Nashville.

Dr. Dhirgham Kshash, who plans to join Abdullah at Mount Vernon Hospital in five months, will be unable to vote. Kshash returns to New Zealand on 15 Jan., and there are no polling places there. He had hoped to be able to vote by mail or over the Internet, but time was too short. "They want to make sure of your identity, make sure you are Iraqi," said Kshash, who left Iraq in 1992.

Though disappointed, he said of the election, "It's the beginning of the democratic process."

The last-minute nature of the arrangements is frustrating to many Iraqis in the United States, who complain they live too far from polling places or do not have the information they need.

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