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Groton Daily Independent
Sunday, May 13, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 303 ~ 25 of 32
across Baghdad Saturday morning.
Amira Muhammed, the supervisor of a polling station in Azamiyah, Baghdad, said some people couldn’t
vote because they did not pick up their new biometric ID cards in time.
“The problem is not with us,” she said.
A member of Iraq’s electoral commission deflected blame for Saturday’s reported irregularities.
“There were some problems with the electronic equipment due to misuse by some employees,” Hazem
al-Ridini told the AP.
In central Baghdad, voters supporting al-Abadi said they are doing so because they give him credit for
Iraq’s military victory over IS.
Al-Abadi “took revenge” for civilians killed in insurgent attacks in Iraq “with the victory over Daesh,” said
71-year-old Felihah Hassan, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
After IS overran nearly a third of Iraq in the summer of 2014, the group launched waves of suicide bomb-
ings targeting civilians in Baghdad and other pockets of government-controlled territory.
With support from the U.S.-led coalition and Iran, al-Abadi oversaw a grueling war against the extremists
and declared victory over the group in December.
Despite al-Abadi’s military achievements, Iraq continues to struggle with an economic downturn sparked
in part by a drop in global oil prices, entrenched corruption and years of political gridlock.
In addition to al-Maliki, al-Abadi’s most powerful competition is from an alliance of candidates with close ties to the country’s powerful, mostly Shiite paramilitary forces, and an alliance led by influential Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Jassim Mohsen, 58, who fought against IS with the paramilitary forces, said he was casting his vote for
al-Amiri’s list, citing the sacrifices of the country’s predominantly Shiite militias in the war on IS.
“I elected the Fatah list because they are the only ones who fought Daesh and gave blood,” he said. Some Sunnis voting Saturday said they are hopeful this election will help Iraq move beyond sectarian
politics and become more inclusive.
Marginalization of Iraq’s Sunnis under al-Maliki is seen as a factor that allowed IS to rise in power in Iraq.
Al-Abadi has led a more cross-sectarian government marked by his ability to balance the interests of his two allies often at odds: the U.S. and Iran.
The war left more than 2 million Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, displaced from their homes, with cities, towns and villages suffering heavy destruction. Repairing infrastructure across Anbar and Nineveh provinces, both majority Sunni areas, will cost tens of billions of dollars.
Abdulrazaq Kubi and his wife Suheila Mahdi, both Sunnis from Baghdad, said they would not be voting for al-Abadi, casting their votes instead for a Sunni-led political alliance.
“The victory is not 100 percent, there is still Daesh here,” said Mahdi. The government “is neglecting the refugees because they are Sunni. They left them in the camps, in the winter it floods, in the summers, they go hungry,” she added.
There were 329 parliament seats at stake, with nearly 7,000 candidates from dozens of political alliances.
Iraq’s constitution allows lawmakers more than three months after the ratification of the election results to form a government. But many expect the process to drag on for much longer if there is no clear winner, as dozens of political parties attempt to cobble together a political bloc large enough to hold a majority of seats in parliament.
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Associated Press writers Balint Szlanko and Salar Salim in Mosul, Iraq, contributed to this report.
Dinner diplomacy: Netanyahu’s unusual run-in with UAE envoy By JOSH LEDERMAN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officially, their governments don’t speak. The United Arab Emirates doesn’t even formally recognize that Israel exists.
But an impromptu bit of dinner diplomacy between Israel’s prime minister and a prominent Emirati