Iraqi turnout less than predicted

BAGHDAD – Just more than half of Iraq’s 15 million registered voters cast ballots in weekend provincial elections, with turnout as low as 40 percent in at least one province, but Iraqi and international officials insisted Sunday that they were satisfied with the participation.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker characterized the turnout as “large,” and Iraq’s top election official called it “the most important election to take place since the fall” of Saddam Hussein. However, turnout failed to reach the 73 percent predicted by a recent Iraqi government poll of 4,570 Iraqis.

Initial vote results are expected later this week, but the final tally will not be known for at least another two to three weeks.

For weeks it appeared the nation was in the grip of campaign fever. Streets were turned into a collage of campaign posters, cell phones were bombarded by campaign text messages and candidates prowled neighborhoods, some handing out gifts.

However, confusion over new and more stringent voter registration practices prevented some Iraqis from voting. Others said that lavish campaign spending and past performance of politicians drove them to avoid the polls.

“I don’t trust any one of the candidates,” complained Usam Mohammed Hassan, a 27-year-old Baghdadi who chose not to vote. “I consider them as a group of thieves coming to get financial benefits for themselves and their political parties as Iraq is going to witness a campaign of reconstructions.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had urged Iraqis on Jan. 23 to vote and said he hoped for a turnout of 70 percent or 80 percent.

Members of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said Sunday they were pleased with the results.

“Fifty-one percent is high turnout indeed for provincial elections,” said Qassim Aboudi, a judge and the chief officer of the electoral commission. “Very rarely in other parts of the world do you get such a high percentage in provincial elections.”

Saturday’s turnout was less than the last provincial elections, in 2005, when 58 percent of voters participated in voting that also included the selection of national lawmakers. The balloting four years ago was carried out under a greater threat of violence and was marked by a widespread boycott among Sunni voters. Only 2 percent of voters in Sunni-dominated Anbar province turned out then; 40 percent went to the polls on Saturday.

This weekend’s relatively low turnout was likely to benefit ruling parties, according to Joost Hiltermann, a political expert with the International Crisis Group.

“The ruling parties will benefit from low turnout as it means that voters who were fed up with their poor record of governance decided to stay home rather than oust them from power at the ballot box,” Hiltermann said. “The real question then is, who among the ruling parties will do better.”

Saturday’s elections were the first to feature a new registration process similar to that used in the U.S., in which voters register in advance and are assigned a specific polling location. In past elections Iraqis could choose among a number of polling stations to vote. The new regulations were designed to combat fraud.

The restriction, however, resulted in a number of Iraqis being turned away from polling stations because they were not registered there. In some cases, voters visited a number of stations searching registration lists for their names.

On Sunday, election officials said that the number of voters turned away at the polls amounted to less than 1 percent of the total turnout and was statistically insignificant. They blamed voters for failing to heed instructions, or to find out where their polling station was before the elections.

“It was negligence on their part,” Aboudi said. “They just showed up, as was the habit of past elections, at the nearest polling center to their house.”

Saturday’s polling was notable also for the lack of significant violence.

In polling stations throughout Baghdad, voters felt secure enough to bring their children with them and treated the event as a holiday outing.