January 31, 2005 - "Information Clearing House" -- Like the US elections of November 2004, the Iraqi "elections" of 2005 have received great deal of propaganda in Western and American mainstream media. Like the elections of November 2004, the elections of January 2005 are "non-elections". They are US-crafted to "legitimise" and keep the same system in place. These elections bring no benefits to the people of Iraq. They are part of an imperial design to keep Iraq in foreign hands. They are staged elections.

Staged elections are directed at the peoples of the West, and particularly, the American people. The Iraqi people know that these elections are a sham designed to keep them forever poor, without civil and public services, and subjected them to foreign domination. They know that these elections are to legitimise the Occupation, not for the sake of "democracy". For elections are not an end, they are part of a process. These elections show the naked and corrupt character of western democracy when packaged and forced on peoples in the Developing World.

From the beginning, the Bush administration opposed one-person, one-vote elections in Iraq. The Bush administration picked up a stooge and appointed him as "prime minister" in place of democracy. The Bush administration "stifled, delayed, manipulated and otherwise thwarted the democratic aspiration of the Iraqi people," writes Canadian journalist and author, Naomi Klein. It was Washington who replaced the process of democracy with violence.

The only legitimate elections under foreign occupation must be in the form of a referendum on whether or not to end the US occupation. The Iraqi people have been denied this important choice. Instead, the Iraqi people were treated to the charade of fake democracy. "That democracy has been denied in Iraq is beyond question", writes John Nichols of The Nation. The Occupation will continue, "as democracy takes hold in Iraq, America's mission there will continue", as part of controlling the oil reserves and establishing military bases against the wishes of the Iraqi people who rejected the elections and stayed indoors.

It was hardly the elections’ day people are used to. It was a day of war, similar to the first day of that illegal US war of aggression. Iraqis cuddled their children and stayed home praying for food, water and electricity. Unless paid by Allawi’s gang and loaded on trucks with Iraqi flags, most Iraqis ignored this "American movie". The veteran journalist, Robert Fisk, of The Independent writes, "Many Iraqis do not know the names of the candidates, let alone their policies, [because it was secret]. But there will be democracy in Iraq", the democracy of enslavement to US imperialism.

Are there any doubts that, the US-created stooge, Iyad Allawi, will not continue his current position of Occupation spokesman? According to the Washington Post, Allawi’s gang threatened Iraqis if they do not vote (for Allawi), they will not get their monthly food rations, the miracle of Saddam, which is keeping the Iraqi people out of starvation.

Under these elections, Iraqis had two choices, lose your card (Saddam's old food-distribution cards) and starve, or go out and vote for the fraudulent elections. About 3 million Iraqis were forced to venture out of their homes to vote in the mid of violence. It is this violence that will keep Allawi and his masters in their positions. These are truly "historic elections" for the US dream of "spreading democracy".

Contrary to western media, the elations were a sham and most Iraqis boycotted them. Heavily fortified polling centres were deserted and streets empty as Iraqis stayed home on Sunday, too frightened or angry to vote in these elections. Over 40 percent of the Iraqi population live in the four provinces that boycoted the US-crafted elections and rejected the Occupation. Furthermore, according to Al-jazeera, "voter turnout in Baghdad was poor, especially in the al-Yarmuk, al-Amiriya, and al-Adhamiya districts - the main population centres in central and western Baghdad". The same was in Samarra, a city of 200,000 people.

The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) revealed that of the 4 million Iraqis living outside Iraq, only 280,303 people registered to vote. Imagine what the numbers are like inside Iraq. "It was hard to describe the vote as legitimate, when whole portions of the country can't vote and doesn't vote", Democrat Senator John Kerry, warned. In a word, the elections were illegitimate and do not represent the Iraqi people. Peoples of the West, and particularly, the American people should be ashamed of this travesty of democracy imposed on other peoples in their name.

Staged elections are not new. They are "demonstration elections" and have been around for a long period of time. From Vietnam in the 1960s to the recent Afghanistan elections. "The purpose of these elections - crafted by the US - was to persuade US citizens and especially Congress that we were invading these countries and supporting a savage war against government opponents at the invitation of a legitimate, freely elected government. The main purpose of a demonstration election is to legitimise an invasion and occupation, not to choose a new government", wrote Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead.

For the Americans, "what happens before or after the elections concerns them not one iota. What matters is that the elections become a good PR exercise for the Bush administration", Wamid Nadhim of Baghdad University told Al-Ahram Weekly. Furthermore, these elections are also seen as an excuse for Tony Blair and other "coalition of the willing" leaders to justify their support for Washington’s illegal war of aggression and occupation.

Like the war, these staged elections are illegal and against Iraq’s interests. Peoples in the "civilised" world should reject these elections, demand the immediate withdraw of US forces from Iraq and the liberation of the Iraqi people.

If George Bush is smart enough, he can use these "historic elections", as an "exit strategy", and withdraws his army from Iraq. The Iraqi people will remember the elections that guaranteed them freedom and liberty from foreign occupation.

Ghali Hassan lives in Perth Western Australia. He can be reached
at e-mail: G.Hassan@exchange.curtin.edu.au

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