Iraqi's Vote Shows Progress

While we seem to have heard that the fledgling democracy in Iraq is growing stronger each day ad infinitum for the last 6 years, a few more baby steps were taken recently with Iraqi's heading to the polls for provincial elections. Voters proudly displaying their purple ink-dipped fingers have been the poster-child's of Iraqi democracy.

The provincial election comes at a key moment in Iraq, with newly elected President Barak Obama looking to scale back the US presence in that country. In response, the Iraqi's must be willing and able to step-up and govern themselves. High turn-out and low violence are not the only distinguishing features of this election; Sunni voter turn-out was ~60%, a reversal of the 2005 election boycott supported by Cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. This is an important shift in the populous' thinking, one that shows that the Iraqi people are fervently interested in self-determination of their own country. Also significant is the apparent renunciation of faith-based politics, with pre-election polls and early-returns showing Iraqi's are increasingly supporting secular parties.
Though, the Western world continues to hold its breath and hope that this experiment in Middle East self-determination will be successful, I think that a small sign of relief might be in order.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2543-DC-Foreign-Policy-Examiner~y2009m1d31-High-turnout-and-low-violence-in-Iraqi-provincial-elections-acclaimed-a

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?hp

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/01/iraq.election/

-LK