Worker-communists to boycott Iraqi elections

Submitted by AWL on 17 December, 2004 - 10:22

The Worker-communist Party of Iraq has resolved to boycott the 30 January elections. It refers back to a statement it made in October.
The issue of the general elections to elect the future Iraqi government that is supposed to be held in the beginning of next year has been put forward for a while. However, amid the current extremely complicated, harsh and dangerous circumstances in Iraq, people are suspicious and hesitant about this issue. Taking into consideration the current situation, the Worker-communist Party of Iraq puts forth its views on the issue of elections and as following:

From our point of view, the only process, which can be called free election, is the one, which is the reflection of the free participation and intervention by people to decide the ruling regime and which meets the following conditions fully:

1. Guarantee the unconditional and unlimited political freedom for all political and mass organizations across the country. All groups must be able to practice political activity in all parts of the country without any kind of pressure, so that the masses are well informed in a free and secure climate about the programs, solutions and the alternatives of all political forces.
2. All groups must have equal access to fund and facilities including access to media to address people.
3. After achieving article 1 and 2 above, at least three months must be allowed for all groups to campaign for elections so that they can inform the people about their projects and solutions.
4. The plan and method, which guarantees the freedom of people to cast their votes away from any form of pressure or coercion, must be made public immediately.
5. The plan and method for holding fair elections protected from being rigged, must be made clear. The elections must be held under the supervision of an international body neutral in the current conflicts in Iraq.
6. The elections must be held in very secure conditions where the masses are able to go to booths without any fear or the feeling that their lives are at risk.
7. There is a huge political issue in Iraq with a long history, namely the “Kurdish issue”. There are two ways to resolve this issue: either to separate and build an independent state or to stay within Iraq provided that equal rights are guaranteed for the people of Kurdistan with the rest of the residents of Iraq. This issue must be resolved through a referendum for people living in Kurdistan before the election due to be held in Iraq to decide the next government in Iraq.

Undoubtedly, none of the above articles, which represent the basic conditions for holding elections that can be called free elections, exists. In all parts where the Islamists have an upper hand and in particular in south of Iraq, they assassinate political activists and their opponents and issue Fatwas (religious decrees), which allow killing those who express ideas different to their ideas and which do not comply with the Islamic Shari’a. There have been many of such practices against our party and members so far.

Moreover, they are imposing their believes and traditions on people by armed militia and terrorism. They are assassinating followers of other religions. Where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan rules which includes a significant part of the country, our party is officially outlawed and our members harassed on daily basis, many political publications are banned and the freedom of political activity is restricted. Under such circumstances there is no political freedom and freedom of belief.

The resources of the country are concentrated in the hands of groups, institutions and apparatuses loyal to America. The oppositions groups do not get any support from the country’s revenues and they do not have access to official media outlets. Thus, the pro-USA Islamic and ethnocentric groups monopolize the media. Under such conditions there is no way that other groups can inform the masses of people about their solutions and politics.

On the other hand, in these circumstances the masses are unable to vote consciously and on basis of knowing and understanding the alternatives of all parties. They are unable under the pressure, the rule or influence of various militias from choosing their alternative freely. These obstacles in addition to the obscurity of how the fairness of these elections will be secured and not having the neutral international organ, which is supposed to directly oversee these elections, do not leave any credibility for the play that is to be conducted under the name of free elections. The United Nation which is supposed to oversee these elections has not been involved in Iraq during last 18 months as a neutral party, but it has proved form the very beginning by handing over the future of the Iraqi society to America and its allies, it is not neutral and therefore is not eligible to oversee these elections as a neutral party.

The current hazardous and harsh conditions in Iraq will also prevent the masses of people from participating in these elections without fear and concern about their safety. In conditions where people do not feel secure and peaceful even at their own homes and feel unsafe to stand in a queue to buy bread cannot participate in this political process and queue to cast their votes.

Finally, in regard to the issue of people of Kurdistan whose fate is still suspended especially after the latest comments made by the Interim Iraqi President, Ghazi Yawar, the forceful annexation of Kurdistan to Iraq and bypassing this issue must not be assumed to be the solution for it. A referendum must be organized to ask the people in Kurdistan about their opinion to stay within Iraq or separate and build an independent state and whatever the result of such referendum could be, it is official and legal and must be carried out.

All these issues created numerous complicated questions for the masses and for us on how this process will be conducted. The right answer to these questions will make the basis for a right and principled position based on serving the interests of people on this issue. The Worker-communist Party of Iraq by stressing on these conditions to hold free elections and on the principles mentioned above holds all parties, which stand behind the project of the Iraq’s polls responsible to give answers to these questions and meet these conditions. A suitable answer, which meets these conditions, will give an opportunity to all parties to participate in the elections and to the masses to cast their votes, otherwise there will be no space for this to happen. We as a force, which represents the interests of the masses of people, will take our final stand on these elections on basis of whether these conditions and principles are met or not.

October 13,2004

Comments

Submitted by AWL on Fri, 17/12/2004 - 22:43

According to the US academic Juan Cole (www.juancole.com): The Iraqi Communist Party, founded in 1930, has announced an independent electoral list of 257 candidates. The size of the party in its heyday of the 1950s and 1960s is disputed, with estimates ranging from 60,000 to half a million. In the 1930s and 1940s it attracted a lot of Jews, Shiites and Christians seeking a non-ethnic basis for national political identity. The CPI was, in any case, a highly significant party. The colonel's regime of Abdul Karim Qasim allied with the Communists because the officers lacked much other grassroots political support. This alliance alarmed Washington, which is widely rumored to have therefore thrown its support to the Baath Party, a nationalist/socialist party that despised the Communists. It is said that in the first Baath coup of 1963, the US passed over to the regime the names of several hundred Communist moles, whom the Baath had tortured and killed (Saddam Hussein was working as an interrogator in this period). The 1968 Baath coup stuck, and although the Baath kept around some tame house Communists, the new one-party state led to a virtual atrophy of the CPI.

There is some possibility that Iraqi secularists from various backgrounds and communities will vote Communist to protest the inexorable movement of Iraq toward being an Islamic republic. The likelihood is, however, that the Communists will not get many seats in parliament and will not be an important voting bloc.

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