India's Election Commission has advice for Iraq

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, June 4, 2007 : India’s Election Commission has some simple advice for its Iraqi counterparts : Stay away from the government as much as possible, assert your independence, and remember, you are responsible only to the people.

For the last five days, in the anonymity of the Taj Mansingh hotel in the heart of the capital, and amid somewhat tight security, Iraq’s entire Election Commission – consisting of nine people, two of them women – has been attending a workshop being hosted by the Indian Election Commission, albeit under the aegis of the UN.

Asked what kind of advice the EC could have for a conflict-ridden country such as Iraq, the EC’s Legal Adviser S K Mendiratta said : ``Our most important message to them is, assert your independence from the government, let the people have faith in you.’’

Clearly, the psychological distance between India and the US-backed government of Iraq seems to be slowly collapsing. In fact, about a fortnight ago, Iraq’s oil minister Hussein Al-Shahristani was in town to get to know Petroleum minister Murli Deora.

As for the Iraqi EC team, truth is, Baghdad asked New Delhi if the EC could send some representatives to Iraq about a couple of years ago, before elections to the transitional government were held. At the time, India flatly refused. It was plainly unwilling to even remotely be seen to be ``assisting’’ the US-led invasion in any way.

However, times have changed and so has New Delhi. Keen to build some sort of linkage with its civilisational friends in Mesopotamia, as well as expand the diversity of its ties with the US, New Delhi hit upon the perfect via media : Why not let UNAMI, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, organise and pay for a workshop on elections-related reforms, that could be hosted by the EC in India?

Clearly, India is fully involved. Mendiratta told `The Telegraph’ the EC was ``sharing its expertise’’ with the Iraqis. Former CEC M S Gill was at the workshop a couple of days ago to underline the importance of the Iraqi EC being separate from the government. Deputy Election Commissioner Rajarshi Bhattacharya is scheduled to speak to the group tomorrow.

As for the Iraqi Election Commissioners, they may not have witnessed the peculiarly Indian way of sometimes stuffing ballot boxes, but there’s a lifetime of other experiences written all over their faces.

Hamdai Al-Hussaini, a former head of the Legal department of the University of Babylon, spoke of how no real elections were held during the Saddam Hussein regime, only polls rather in the nature of referendums, which asked the single ``Yes/No’’ question about Hussain.

``If you ticked `No,’ then that ballot would be removed. Polling agents actually were Saddam Hussein’s security men. Results would come out in the dead of night. There was no competition, there was only one party,’’ Hamdai said.

Hamdai and Amal A. Aref from Kirkuk, agreed that in today’s situation, stability was the need of the hour. But they also pointed out that when elections to the first transitional government were held in 2005, there were 111 parties, while the second time around as many as 319 parties.

Aref and Hamdai, both women, shrugged their shoulders and said : ``Saddam Hussein’s regime may have been much more stable, but of course he had to go. That was `lazmi,’’ they said, using the Arabic/Urdu word for ``necessary.’’

Faraj M Al-Haydari, chairman of the EC, who returned to Iraq after the US invasion after 30 years of living in Stockholm, pointed out that today’s chaos was meant to frighten the people into hoping for one-party rule once again. ``But the people are not buying that,’’ he said.

Mendiratta, meanwhile, pointed to the yawning gulf between the Indian and Iraqi experiences. He said he had told them about the recently concluded poll in Uttar Pradesh, which had been spread over seven phases, while Iraqi law mandated holding the election in one day only.

Then there was the matter of the Iraqi EC having to report to its Parliament once in three months, while the EC in India had to do no such thing. ``We have tried to tell them to amend that law when they return home,’’ Mendiratta said.

Asked what they liked about India, Aref said, ``We have come to learn from the Indian experience. In Arabic we have a saying, `instead of asking the hakim, ask the people who have been ill to tell you about the disease.’ That is why we are here.’’

As for what role US troops were now playing in Iraq, Faraj Al-Haydari believed they needed to stay, ``otherwise there would be chaos.’’

Hamdai said she didn’t care who had come to Iraq, as long as they had finished the `shaitan, Saddam Hussein.’

With Aref nodding in agreement, she added, ``but the time has now come for them to leave.’’

ENDS