Press briefing on iraq elections

Organized amid violence and mayhem, the 30 January election in Iraq had been a dignified and peaceful demonstration of a vibrant civil society, sending a message to the world that normal people had something to say about their destinies, the head of the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today.

Describing the landmark election, Carina Perelli said it had been an extremely good election, organized and conducted by the Iraqi people in a second act of reasserting sovereignty over their own lives.  The election process had been long.  Recalling the image of people walking towards the polls, she said the election had been a centrepiece of what the United Nations represented.  The Electoral Assistance Division was extremely pleased with how well the Independent Electoral Commission for Iraq (IECI) had been able to live up to its mandate and deliver quality elections.

In the midst of all the commentary, she said it was important to remember that the elections had taken place with very few technical problems and had been organized by a very new institution of Iraqi citizens.  The Electoral Commission had not existed eight months ago.  In that sense, she was pleased to see how well the IECI had evolved and expanded its capacity.  The 30 January election had been a feat of logistics and an incredible exercise of recruiting and training electoral workers in a context of immense intimidation.  Originally consisting of seven staff and a chief electoral officer, the IECI now had some 650 permanent staff.  Some 145,000 polling workers and tallying agents had been recruited and trained for the operation.

Another incredible element of the story was the fact that some 95,000 people had been mobilized in polling centres and polling stations as party agents and national observers.  There had been, on average, two party agents and one national monitor per polling station.  In a context of fear and risk, the election had shown the willingness of people to act as a watchdog of the election’s quality and transparency.  The Iraqi people had not only expressed the political will to own the process, but also their trust in the Electoral Commission.  If the people had thought that the election would have been rigged, they would not have come out in such force.  It was a simpler story, but also a more complex story that would need to be told once the dust had settled.

Continuing, she said the IECI had rightly decided not to start the tallying and counting until Monday when party agents, national observers and media representatives could be present at the tallying centre.  That was why there had been a small delay in the beginning.  From the figures she had received from the field, 100 observers and agents had monitored the tallying centre in the first hours of the operation as soon as the counting had begun.

In terms of results and trends, figures were impressionistic, she said.  The IECI had been “passionate” in announcing a 72 per cent turnout.  An agreement between the Electoral Commission and the United Nations, which had always played an advisory and technical role, meant that the IECI and not the United Nations would make announcements in terms of returns.  Noting the need to avoid the temptation of extracting percentages, she advised correspondents to use absolute figures rather than percentages.  While it was too early to say how it was going, she was very pleased that the different political actors were discussing the election and being very active in the process.

Asked to estimate voter turnout, she said it was important to remember that everybody was operating on the basis of impressions.  As in most elections in a transition, perceptions of the elections depended on where one was physically located at the time.  The figures would need to be examined carefully.  At the current stage, even if the media was present when certain figures were given, those corresponded to polling stations and not the general trend of the population.  Regarding the issue of the “Sunni road”, the Sunni vote in Baghdad, the largest Sunni city in the country, would be decisive in terms of the overall turnout figures.  There had also been many misconceptions and a lack of information.

Although some polling stations had opened very late, partly because of curfews and fear, once the polling stations had been opened, none had been closed for security reasons.  That was a fact.  People had waited on very long lines.  An indicator of success for her had been the first reports of long lines in Mosul, which had been one of the hardest hit areas in terms of intimidation.  The overwhelming number of women voting had been extremely important and was a good sign in terms of ensuring that the entire society had a voice in the constitutional process.

How close to reality were the perceptions being portrayed by the media to the general public? a correspondent asked.  Responding, she noted that having participated in many elections, the election in Iraq had been one of the most moving she had seen.  Beyond discussion and diagnosis, the election had confirmed the will of ordinary people to be heard.

Asked where the ballots were being counted and when the final results would be known, she said the matter was in the hands of the IECI.  Every single ballot had to be checked and rechecked.  Counting at the polling stations would result in tallying forms from each specific station.  The forms would then be consolidated at a tallying centre and entered into a database in front of party agents and monitors.  There was one tallying centre.  Out-of-country vote-tallying forms would also need to be integrated.

Asked if there had been reports of voter fraud, she said there had been two types of allegations.  In the case of a suspicion of vote tampering, the Commission had quarantined those ballot boxes and had requested that a written complaint be submitted and an investigation conducted.  If the IECI was not satisfied, the quarantined boxes would not be incorporated into the total number of votes to be tallied.  That was a standard procedure in such cases.  In conflict areas, communities had complained that they had not had sufficient polling stations.  The IECI would investigate that complaint.  The Commission urged people to complain in writing of any kind of misbehaviour or suspicion of fraud.  It wanted to ensure that complaints were dealt with institutionally and that everybody felt that they had been heard and that due process had taken place.

* *** *