:: The Rational Radical Blog ::

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Scott Ritter: Iraq Vote Fixed

Ritter maintained that in initial election results, the Shia majority won nearly 60 percent of the vote, giving them control of Iraq's National Assembly without having to form a coalition with any other group.

However, said Ritter, "Suddenly there's a government-ordered lockdown of the votes, while there is a secret recount - not a public recount - this wasn't Florida where you had people checking chads - this was a secret recount where American troops were escorting ballot boxes into undisclosed locations to be counted by [interim Prime Minister] Allawi's government."

Ritter told Malzberg that the secret recount dramatically changed the political landscape, with the Shia vote dropping to 48 percent and Allawi's government picking up nearly 10 points of support, from 4 percent to 13 percent.

This is what I've thought all along. The Shia are 60% of the country, and 20% of the country, Sunnis, basically didn't vote, so the Shia share of the voting population goes to 75%. So how they wound up with only 48% of the vote is something that never made sense.

Jack Clark 9:03 PM [+]   
Post #111051742372241108