nsnbc : Iraq’s parliamentary elections on Wednesday have been a bloody success in the truest sense of the words. The Independent Election Commission estimates the voter turnout at 60 percent and that despite Al-Qaeda’s threats to kill anyone who participates in the poll and a wave of terror attacks.
The elections were praised by the United Nations Security Council which noted the high voter turnout and broad participation of the population. The council urged all political actors in Iraq to help facilitate the complicated formation of a new government. In a statement read out at the UN headquarters by the Security Council’s rotating president for April, the Nigerian UN Ambassador U. Joy Ogwu, said:
“The members of the Security Council welcome the holding of timely parliamentary elections in Iraq on 30 April, and commend the people of Iraq for demonstrating their commitment to a peaceful, inclusive and democratic political process”.
The council added that the vote indicated that no act of violence or terrorism can reverse a path towards peace, democracy and reconstruction. Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that the parliamentary election was a step forward toward stability and security of an independent Iraq. He noted that the large voter turnout proves that there is no room for terrorism in the future of the country.
About 20 million of Iraq’s 60 million population came to the polling stations. The Independent Election Commission estimates that the voter turnout of eligible voters was about 60 percent. Several terrorist attacks on Wednesday, killed and injured scores. Terrorists targeted mainly polling stations. The preliminary results are expected in about two weeks.
In 2012, Saudi Arabia began financing a terror campaign in Iraq’s Al-Anbar province when the Al-Maliki administration increased security in the region to prevent that Saudi-backed mercenaries use the province to infiltrate fighters, weapons and logistic supplies to battlefields in Syria.
Viloence in al-Anbar increased again in December 2013 after the Iraqi military cleared out a purported “protest camp” in Ramadi, that was used as a cover for ISIL and other Saudi Arabia – backed Al-Qaeda brigades. A wave of terrorism and fighting has since spread from Ramadi to Fallujah.
In March, the ambassador of the United Nations to Iraq, Nikolay Mladenov, reported that some 400,000 people had been displaced by the fighting and terrorism in al-Anbar province since the beginning of 2014.
Ch/L – nsnbc 01.05.2014
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