Blogger Salam Pax has a fascinating piece in the Guardian on the run-up to the Iraqi election in which he says we go to vote again hoping that we will not be blown to pieces. And I really believe that we Iraqis do deserve a bit of credit for having done that twice now. I don’t think there is a better demonstration of the will to get this political process rolling and keeping it rolling than participating under the threat of violent death. I know I make fun of it all the time but this is not to be mistaken for belittling the courage of all those who participate. He concludes that The insurgency is doing its best to defy all the security measures and has blown up the electricity generator that feeds the main water pumps to Baghdad. Most of the city is without running water and the municipality says they hope to get everything running again by tomorrow afternoon. Let’s hope that’s the only thing insurgents are going to blow up for the next two days.
Whoever you talk to says they think voter turnout will be just as good as last time. I do believe that for many Iraqis the fact that this time we are voting for people who are staying in government for four years has sunk in. We’ve been through three trial runs and this time it’s for real. Keep your fingers crossed for us, will you?