This AP story kid of amazes me. I mean, we kept hearing that turn out was going to be incredibly high. In fact, the Allawi government seemed to take prdie in statin they were expecting a far higher percentage ov voter turnout than in the U.S. or U.K.
And they run out of ballots? I wonder, to what degree this happened in Sunni areas?
This is almost sounding like what happened in ohio with the lack of voting machines in urban areas.
Anyway, here is the link, and the story posted below:
Published February 2, 2005
Ballot shortage kept thousands from voting, Iraqi leader says
By Sally Buzbee
Associated Press
Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq's interim president said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people may have been unable to vote in the country's historic weekend election because some polling places -- including those in Sunni Arab areas -- ran out of ballots.
As clerks pounded vote-count tallies into computers to compile final results, President Ghazi al-Yawer also said chaos and a power vacuum in Iraq mean U.S. forces need to stay for now, even though a new government will be formed after the results are known.
Scattered clashes were reported in rebel areas across the country, but authorities still eased security restrictions by reopening borders and allowing commercial flights to take off from Baghdad Airport for the first time since the weekend's landmark election.
The allegation that many voters were turned away could further alienate minority Sunnis, who already are complaining they have been left out of the political process.
Elections officials acknowledged that irregularities kept people away -- including in the volatile northern and heavily Sunni city of Mosul. Security worries in Sunni areas were partly to blame for the fact that some polls did not open and ballots were too few, they said.
At his news conference, al-Yawer was asked whether the presence of foreign troops might be fueling the country's Sunni-led insurgency by encouraging rebel attacks.
"It's only complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power," al-Yawer said.
He said foreign troops should leave altogether only after Iraq's security forces are built up, the country's security situation has improved and some pockets of terrorists are eliminated.
Iraq's main Shiite Muslim alliance expects to win the biggest share in the country's National Assembly but not enough to push through a political agenda or claim the prime minister's job without support from other parties -- notably the Kurds.
Although no official results have been announced, officials of the United Iraqi Alliance, endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, say they expect to claim roughly half the 275 seats.
That figure, in line with pre-election predictions, appears based on reports from the alliance's poll watchers.
The ticket headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite backed by the United States, is running second in central and southern Iraq, according to politicians from several factions.
In the Kurdish-run areas of the north, however, the Kurdish Alliance, a coalition of the two major Kurdish parties, is expected to win so many votes that it could surpass Allawi in the final national tally.