Big turnout in election despite scattered attacks (Reuters did exit polls)

[ECH1969]

In Saddam Hussein's home province around Tikrit, once a heartland of Sunni Arab opposition, turnout was 83 percent, a local electoral official told Reuters.

Informal polling by Reuters around the country showed the ruling Shi'ite Islamist Alliance and their Kurdish allies still dominant in their southern and northern bases respectively.

But there also seemed to be a strong turnout in favor of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who heads a secular slate with candidates from across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divides.

Many believe Allawi could lead a coalition government, a development Washington might endorse after losing patience with Jaafari, whose term has seen the rise of violent pro-government militias and warm ties with America's enemies in Shi'ite Iran.

http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_international.asp?id=115945

[daleo]

1. Why should we believe this?

""I'm delighted to be voting for the first time because this election will lead to the American occupation forces leaving," said Jamal Mahmoud, 21, in the battle-scarred city of Ramadi."

This sounds like you know what.

[Botany]

2. Great

Time to go home ..... Get out of dodge ..... split ..... make tracks...... buy the t shirt take the snapshots and load up
the family in the station wagon and head back to the ranch ..... baaaa Bye now.

[w13rd0]

3. And I recall Bush's words...

..."we will leave Iraq when the Iraqis ask us to leave..."

Well George, THEY ARE ASKING US TO LEAVE...so "cut and run" you little shit.

[Toots]

4. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi

Isn't he the American stooge we used to replace Chalabi when he fell from favor?

[Cha]

6. Yes, it was the..

"Awol-i and Allawi" show when Allawi was in D.C. making a "speech".

Can these elections be fixed like ours?

[JackDragna]

5. It takes a special kind of sucker..

..to believe elections in a nation dominated by the military of another country mean anything whatsoever. Hell, Iraq STILL has to operate by the guidelines Bremer set out before he left. American news reminds me of Pravda now.

[AngryAmish]

7. Bullshit

They put a few actors in front of the cameras for our consumption and we are supposed to believe it?

[BlueInPhilly]

8. Did they use Diebold? N/T

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. As soon as I saw that douchebag Allawi on the news last night

I said the fix was in. Jesus Christ is it getting transparent.

Their problem is simple: Allawi will forward a pro-US agenda, but he will inflame the Shia while also (weirdly) failing to mollify the Sunni. Worst of all possible worlds, and our idiot strategists still think it's a good idea, probably because Allawi is on the take something fierce (and a murderer himself).

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

10. What Are Exit Polls?

And why do they even matter? I think they're pretty much pointless, but the agencies that run them obviously have a vested interest in making people believe they are valid or consequential.

But as we were told in the last few elections, exit polling is not usually correct, so I think we should remind everyone of that fact.

[marions ghost]

14. Exit polls-- when conducted honestly--

are useful in indicating election fraud because they are so closely correlated with actual results. But as we found out in 2004, exit polls can be fudged.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

16. Wait....I'm Confused....

After the exit polling appeared to be off by several points last time, we were told that they should Not be relied upon. Even the pollsters themselves claimed that OOOOPS.....they were off, we were wrong, sorry for the confusion.

So which is it? Are they reliable and useful in predicting fraud.....or are they just guestimates, and not necessarily indicitive of reality.

Unfortunately, when the polls are fraudulent, and the items that the polls themselves are measuring are being manipulated, then the polls are WORTHLESS. And the people who run the polls, that covered up for the manipulation which took place last time, deserve to be out of business! People Are Sheep!

[marions ghost]

17. there is strong evidence

that the exit polls were manipulated in the 2004 US election. Exit polls are used around the world and generally considered reliable. Exit polls are not worthless when conducted honestly. There was a cover-up by the pollster Mitofsky and the media in 2004.

In the book "Fooled Again," about the 2004 election Mark Crispin Miller says:

"While there had been broad coverage of the claim that all these exit polls were somehow wrong, there were almost no reports on the extreme unliklihood that such a thing could happen. On March 31, 2005, a study came out from US Counts Votes computing that the odds against such an enormous error were 959,000 to one."

He says also about 2004:

"There was the unprecedented gap between the exit poll results and the official tally, the former naming Kerry as the winner in five states that finally went to Bush, including Ohio. On Nov.3 those exit polls were hastily dismissed as "wrong," and then conveniently revised so that they would foretell the vote instead of contradicting it. The pollsters floated some preposterous theories to account for the bizarre malfunction: women had been over-sampled; Bush voters suffered odd attacks of muteness when confronted by young persons bearing clipboards. No one would discuss the soundest explanation of the mystery, clearly posed by Steve Freeman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania: the exit polls were accurate, and the official numbers fraudulent.

[jseankil]

11. Very good news! /nm

nm

[reprobate]

12. This election is basically irrelevant. We all know the shia will win.

They after all are the majority, and most Shia, from everything I've seen on these boards, are Iranian Islamist leaning. Hell, many of them come from Iran and have family there

We know that Iran has been in control of this war from it's very beginnings. Wasn't Chalabi in the pay of Iranian Intelligence, as was revealed right here from the NYTimes?

It doesn't take a psychic to know what's gonna happen. The Islamists will take over the government of Iraq, and the civil war will begin in earnest. The Shia have many years of getting even to catch up on. And our people will be caught between them....Hell, with all we've been pushing Iran lately, they just may foment a real anti-American movement and that would mean the beginning of huge american losses in lives.

No one WANTS to see that happen. But I will confess to the feeling that anything that makes Boy Bush look bad can't be all bad.

[cal04]

13. I wish them lots of luck

Most of the once dominant minority boycotted a January 30 election for an interim assembly to draft a new constitution.

"I am very happy to vote for the first time because this election will lead to the American occupation forces leaving Ramadi and Iraq," 21-year-old voter Jamal Mahmoud said.

Hadi Mishaal, who suffered spinal injuries while serving in Saddam's Army in 1991, has walked two kilometres with a crutch to vote in Baghdad with his wife.

"I hope we can have a Government that will help me and give me my rights," he said.

[RebelOne]

15. I am sure that's the reason for such a big turnout.

The Iraqis are hoping that after the election, the troops will begin to leave Iraq.