Here’s some more news and views on the Iraqi elections:

• As noted below, the violence, as expected, continues.
• USAT has a nifty interactive version of the ballot as well as one that overviews the election..
• The LAT has an excellent overview section related to the elections.
• MSNBC has its own “Iraq Votes” section.
• Jeff Jarvis has a remarkable round-up of his own.
• Via Reuters we find that the first days of ex-pat Iraqi elections was successful: Some 30 Pct of Iraqi Exiles Voted on First Day-IOM
  

  A total of 84,429 Iraqis abroad, or 29.8 percent of the 280,303 who registered, voted on Friday. Those who registered number only a quarter of expatriates entitled to vote.

  Nevertheless, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which runs the Iraqi out-of-country voting program said the poll reflected strong desire by exiles to participate in their homeland’s political future.

  Indeed, I am not sure of the “nevertheless” in the piece, as it was the first of three days of voting–and today and tomorrow are weekedn days, when one would expect increased turnout given that in many cases significant distances must be traversed to get to the polls.

• Also via Reuters, we find that the Iraqi President is optimistic: Iraqi President Says Expects Most Iraqis to Vote.
• WaPo’s write-up (Iraqis Prepare To Go to Polls Amid Threats Of Violence) notes:
  

  For all their importance, the elections are still a mystery to many Iraqis. Almost half the probable voters think they will be picking a president, according to polls; they will not. They will choose 275 members of a National Assembly from among 111 political parties and coalitions whose individual candidates still remain largely unknown to voters. The assembly will select a president and prime minister and write a constitution.

  There will be 5,000 polling centers and nearly 30,000 polling stations, a large number designed to keep lines short, and therefore less vulnerable to attack.

  Not surprising that there is insufficient information on the elections in the populace given the even in our system, with news aplenty, a large number of folks often don’t know what is going on. Good deal about attempts to minimize lines. I will note, however, that I find it odd that everyone keeps noting that if 60% of the population in made up of one group, that that group would dominate the polling. Isn’t that pretty axiomatic?

• William F. Buckley notes: Look Who’s Voting.
• Bill Hennessy has some views on the subject. He also notes that Friday’s coverage of the elections in the NYT wasn’t exactly positive (something that had Dean Esmay rather upset).
• Robert Tagorda comments at OTB on the first day of voting.
• Bryan of AWS has some observations as well.
  Andrew Sullivan provides his criteria for a successful election on Sunday:
  

  Here are my criteria: over 50 percent turnout among the Shia and Kurds, and over 30 percent turnout for the Sunnis. No massive disruption of voting places; no theft of ballots. Fewer than 500 murdered.

  This strikes me as a wholly reasonable set of standards.

• Hindrocket at Powerline has a touching election-related photo.
• Roger L. Simon notes that to this point, the promised massive violence has yet to occur. Here’s hoping that his optimism concerning the strength of the anti-democracy terrorists is well founded.
• Quote of the day from Mohammed of Iraw the Model:
  

  On Sunday, the sun will rise on the land of Mesopotamia. I can’t wait, the dream is becoming true and I will stand in front of the box to put my heart in it.

Source: LAT

Update: Two more round-ups: Truth. Quante-fied and Pajama Hadin as well as comments and news from Paul at WizBang!.

If you have your own post on the election, please free to link to this round-up (and any trackbacks will get an inline link at the end of this post).

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11 Responses to “Today’s Iraqi Election Round-Up”

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1. Arguing with signposts... » Iraqi vote half-empty, no! half-full! Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 8:42 pm

   [...] tting the elections,” said al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab. Then, from Steven Taylor’s excellent roundup of Iraqi election news, I see this is the new story: Iraq President Expects Majorit [...]

2. Pajama Hadin Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 1:38 pm

   Iraq Election Facts, Military Blogs and News on the Ground
   Iraq Election facts, related News, and Info on the ground from U.S. Military Bloggers, Iraqi Bloggers, and others:

   document.write(‘Election Watch ♦ ‘);document.write(‘Military Blogs ♦ ‘);document.write(‘Iraqi Bloggers ♦ ‘…

3. PajamaHadin Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 1:38 pm

   Great Information! Excellent work. I’ll put a link to this on my Iraqi Election Repository post at PajamaHadin.

4. bryan Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 2:35 pm

   Interesting that you provide the Reuters link that the president is optimistic, because I was reading earlier report (Here it is: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20050129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_president_2 ), and the report was that the president of Iraq was NOT optimistic.

5. Truth. Quante-fied. Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 2:41 pm

   Iraq Election Coverage – (Un)Fair and (Un)Balanced
   Update: Poliblog has the latest numbers on worldwide expatriate voting, as well as a great Iraqi election round-up.

6. Bill Hennessy Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 2:56 pm

   Steven, I understand why you put numbers on success in the Iraq elections, but I’m wary about the practice. The media have two sets of stories ready for Monday morning: either the election was a miserable failure, or “Dog Walks 1,200 Miles to Reunite With Family.”

7. Steven Taylor Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 2:59 pm

   Bill,

   Point taken (and you are certainly correct on the MSM spin that is likely). However, when it comes ot elections I am a numbers guy, so numbers I will report

8. bLogicus Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 5:04 pm

   On the Eve of Elections Iraq Needs Christian Voters
   Iraq prepares to enter the international community of free nations with tomorrow’s historic election. Anyone reading the headlines would think that no one will be voting in the election. For example, Reuters leads with “Iraq to Vote Shadowed by Threat…

9. Michelle Malkin Says:
   January 29th, 2024 at 8:15 pm

   IRAQI ELECTION NEWS
   The latest word on election eve… How Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper is playing it: Violence rages on as Iraqis go to polls today: 19 killed in suicide attack, shootings Steven Taylor at PoliBlog has a comprehensive round-up. Fresh news updates at…

10. Myopic Zeal Says:
    January 29th, 2024 at 10:53 pm

    Iraqi Election Round-Up
    Good Iraqi election round up and links from Steven Taylor at Poliblog.

    …

11. On The Third Hand Says:
    January 30th, 2024 at 7:32 am

    Election Links.
    Iraqi voices
    The New Democratic Iraq Born!at Hammorabi.
    The people have won.Mohammed and Omar at Iraq the ModelThe best Eid I ever had. Ali of Free Iraqi.
    Suicide Bombers V. Suicide Voters Alaa at the Mesopotamian
    Others
    E-Day and E-Day, part…