Suha Ma'ayeh gauges the reaction to the forthcoming elections among Iraqis in Amman "Don't forget to cast your vote" read posters freshly plastered around Amman and bearing the Iraqi flag. One newspaper ad placed in local papers features five Iraqis from different walks of life. They explain who is eligible to vote, though the subliminal message is not hard to discern. The five are intended to project the image of a unified Iraq. Miles away, on the shores of the Dead Sea, Iraqi and international observers last week conducted a three-day mock election to see what it will be like registering Iraqis at polling stations. It is all part of a campaign urging Jordan's Iraqi community to vote in the first elections to be held since the toppling of the former regime. Yet for many Iraqis in Jordan, one of 14 countries participating in the Out-of- Country Voting Programme (OCV) for the Iraqi national assembly elections on 30 January, the upcoming elections, held under the US occupation, are viewed as being anything but democratic. "I am not willing to vote at all, and I don't care who the candidates are," says Iraqi tailor Najemul Deen Jumeily, who left Falluja several years ago for neighbouring Jordan. "The elections will not be fair, and the results are programmed to benefit the Shia," he says, echoing widely held fears over Iranian influence. "The game is clear and the Sunnis are going to be excluded." Last week the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), commissioned by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq to conduct the voting programme, concluded an agreement with the Jordanian government to allow Jordan's estimated 400,00 Iraqi expatriates to vote. Even though Sunni parties have called for a boycott of the elections to protest against the US occupation there are Iraqis eager to participate in the elections. And many remain undecided, a situation that is not helped by the unavailability of candidate lists. "I want to vote as soon as I know which coalitions are running," says 29-year-old Thafer Al-Nawawi, who works at a grocery store in Madaba, 30kms south of Amman. Al-Nawawi thinks he will vote for the Unified Iraqi Alliance, headed by Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). "Al- Hakim," he believes, "is not doing anything for personal gain and he is not into dividing Iraqis." Instead, Al-Nawawi says, "Al-Hakim defends Shias, the Sunnis and Christians." Lazhar Aloui, head of the Iraq OCV country office in Jordan announced earlier this week that registration will begin on 17 January and last for a week. His organisation is currently discussing plans with the Ministry of Education to open polls in state schools. "We are ready for the elections and our office and staff can process 200,000 voters," says Aloui, whose mandate includes educating Iraqis on the democratic process by providing impartial information about the aim of the elections and when and where Iraqis can cast their ballots. His office is already planning a hotline to answer voters' questions. "My impression is that Iraqis are showing interest in the electoral process, and there is a desire to do something that will affect change in Iraq," he says. Voting in Jordan will take place between 28-30 January, with the last day coinciding with Iraq's own poll. "The average Iraqi wants to see tangible results," says Iraqi politician and academic Khaled Shamari, who believes that a political figure capable of directing the future of Iraq has yet to emerge. "How can Iraqis interact with the elections and the deteriorating security situation when their basic needs are not met?" "I want to vote for a civilised coalition, one whose vision is based on separating religion from state," says Shahlaa Abdul- Razzaq, who left Iraq in 1991 to flee the effects of internationally-imposed sanctions. She favours the Communist Party, or the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Independent Democrats Party of Adnan Pachachi, despite admitting she is not yet fully aware of who is running in the elections. Voting regulations stipulate that Iraqis 18 years of age or older on 1 January, 2005 are eligible to vote. Those who register receive a receipt that they will have to produce, together with personal identification, when they cast their ballot. Voters will have their finger marked with indelible ink to avoid repeat ballots. When the polls close ballot boxes from each country will be collected and transferred to the country offices. The process is likely to be complicated by the fact that, according to diplomatic sources, many official records of Iraqis, kept by the Iraqi Embassy in Amman, were burned a day before the collapse of Baghdad.
