By Baghdadhope
Published the final results of elections for provincial councils held in Iraq on January 31. According to these data, with regard to Christians, who participated in the elections of provincial councils only in Nineveh (Mosul) Baghdad and Basra, the results reported from the site Ankawa.com are:
Victory for Baghdad of the Ishtar Slate the candidate of which is Khorkhis Isho Sada, head of the Bet Nahrein Democratic Party in the capital.
Victory for Nineveh of Ishtar Slate the candidate of which is Sa'ad Tanyos Jajii.
The Ishtar Slate (513) is a coalition of various parties and candidates, including the Al-Suryan Independent Gathering Movement to which Sa’ad Tanyos Jajji belongs, the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian People's Council, the Chaldean National Congress, the Bet Nahrein Democratic Party, The Patriotic Union of Bet Nahrein, the Chaldean Cultural Association of Ankawa and the Notables of Qaraqosh.
Victory for Basra of the Chaldean Democratic Union Party, the candidate of which is Sa'ad Matti.
The Chaldean Democratic Union Party (503) is led by Abd al-Ahad Afram Sawa, Member of Parliament elected in the Iraqi Kurdish list in 2005.
If the results are confirmed it would be a resounding defeat of Rafidain List (504) composed of a single party led by Yonadam Kanna, a Christian member of parliament elected in 2005, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, always proposed as an opposition party to the power exercised by the Kurdish Government through Christian parties close to it.
The victory of the Ishtar Slate in Nineveh and Baghdad, if officially confirmed, will increase the doubts of those who soon after the elections made accusations of fraud as Yonadam Kanna did talking to PUKmedia when he said that the (Kurdish) militia affiliated to the Ishtar Slate lobbied to control the votes of the Christian inhabitants of the Nineveh Plain.
Accusation repeated in a report on the work of observation of the elections held between January 28 and February 2 by Andrew Swan and Margaret Murphy of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and by Afram Yacoub of the Assyria Council of Europe (ACE).
The team of three people, according to the ACE, once in place worked separately. The two members of UNPO checked the votes at the University of Dohuk while Afram Yacoub went to the town of Qaraqosh, capital of the district of Hamdaniya in the district of Nineveh, a center of about 45,000 inhabitants almost all Christians. The conclusions of the team of UNPO are those of a general regular conduct of the elections undermined by some irregularities on the methods of identification of voters, on facilities for disabled and displaced persons (IDP Internally Displaced People).
More detailed and critical are Afram Yacoub’s conclusions in its inspection in Qaraqosh. Conclusions leading to an explicit accusation of Ishtar Slate to have directly or indirectly influenced the vote in the town. Some witnesses reported by ACE, for example, talks about activists at Rafidain List threatened or subjected to violence by members of the militia created to protect the town and funded by the Kurdish government through the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian People's Council, one of the groups comprising the Ishtar Slate.
Others describe the situation of the poor inhabitants of a complex called "Aghajan apartments” financed by Sarkhis Aghajan who through gifts, promises of employment and reductions in rents, would be indirectly forced to vote for the list sponsored by their benefactor. As were the students from nearby University of Mosul threatened by the militia of being unable to use buses to travel to courses, not to speak of the same members of the militia whose livelihood depends on maintaining their employment.
Criticism then focus on the person of Sarkhis Aghajan, the finance minister of the Kurdish government who as a Christian has in recent years attended to the needs of the community by financing homes, churches, cemeteries and many other projects. Projects that despite having assured him the imperishable gratitude of those who benefited from them, and that even resulted in honors from various churches in Iraq, always exposed him to the fierce criticism of those who blames him for not working for the welfare of his coreligionists but for that of the Kurdish government - Aghajan is a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Massud Barzani - anxious to give out an image of democratic government respectful of minorities, but especially to create a grateful favorable basis useful in supporting the project of the "Greater Kurdistan" i.e. the enlargement of the existing boundaries of the autonomous region of Kurdistan through the annexation of the Nineveh Plain, an area with a high density of Christian population.
More detailed and critical are Afram Yacoub’s conclusions in its inspection in Qaraqosh. Conclusions leading to an explicit accusation of Ishtar Slate to have directly or indirectly influenced the vote in the town. Some witnesses reported by ACE, for example, talks about activists at Rafidain List threatened or subjected to violence by members of the militia created to protect the town and funded by the Kurdish government through the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian People's Council, one of the groups comprising the Ishtar Slate.
Others describe the situation of the poor inhabitants of a complex called "Aghajan apartments” financed by Sarkhis Aghajan who through gifts, promises of employment and reductions in rents, would be indirectly forced to vote for the list sponsored by their benefactor. As were the students from nearby University of Mosul threatened by the militia of being unable to use buses to travel to courses, not to speak of the same members of the militia whose livelihood depends on maintaining their employment.
Criticism then focus on the person of Sarkhis Aghajan, the finance minister of the Kurdish government who as a Christian has in recent years attended to the needs of the community by financing homes, churches, cemeteries and many other projects. Projects that despite having assured him the imperishable gratitude of those who benefited from them, and that even resulted in honors from various churches in Iraq, always exposed him to the fierce criticism of those who blames him for not working for the welfare of his coreligionists but for that of the Kurdish government - Aghajan is a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Massud Barzani - anxious to give out an image of democratic government respectful of minorities, but especially to create a grateful favorable basis useful in supporting the project of the "Greater Kurdistan" i.e. the enlargement of the existing boundaries of the autonomous region of Kurdistan through the annexation of the Nineveh Plain, an area with a high density of Christian population.
In light of these criticisms and of the preliminary results published at the beginning of this month that saw the Rafidain List prevail in Baghdad on Ishtar Slate (45.5% versus 29.2%) disputes about provincial elections will not end, even if by now no statement about them came from the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Statement that, however, will not get any results rather than stir controversy within the Christian political circles considering that no more than three days ago Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Independent Electoral Commission told the Reuters that: "None of the complaints, even the red ones, will affect the results of the election." The elections, as the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said may have had the result of "strengthen(ing) democracy in Iraq."
But certainly Faraj al-Haidari’s words will recall to Iraqis other elections, not “so” democratic.