The meeting in the spartan auditorium had been going on for half an hour when one clearly frustrated member in the audience abruptly interrupted the discussion about Iraq's upcoming elections.
"We appreciate what you are doing," he said to the members of the Independent Election Committee in Iraq (IECI) who were meeting local leaders in the northern city of Mosul, "but promises are easy, and we need some action".
Lack of security, a shortage of polling stations and fear of fraud are the major issues in the upcoming election, the final step in the transition to democracy following the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
The commissioners patiently tried to explain to the fiesty crowd that they can only open polling stations in areas deemed safe enough.
"The security situation is a plague of this country right now - we are very limited, there is no room to manoeuvre," said commission member Safwat Rashid, who together with chief electoral officer Adil al-Lami, was flown to Mosul and escorted to the meeting by US officials and military personnel.
This was only the latest in a series of visits which commission members are making around Iraq to listen to people's concerns over the logistics of organising the landmark December 15 parliamentary elections.
"If you refuse to open a polling station, you deprive those people of their rights," said one man.
Others pointed out that with no vehicles allowed on election day, the far-flung villagers in the rolling hills surrounding the city will find it hard to get to polling stations.
Lami admitted that they still had work to do, but maintained they were on the right track.
In January, for the last general elections, the Mosul region only had 94 polling stations while in October, for the referendum on the constitution, the number rose to 359. For next month's elections, the commission is hoping to open 520 voting centers.
Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, has been a focal point for the insurgency and its population reflects the fragile combination of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups.
"You have this mix of all the different flavours in Iraq," said commissioner Rashid, who despite the criticisms and complaints aired during the meeting, was optimistic about the elections because people want to participate.
"It is a big development, we could not find anybody (in Mosul) to work with the IECI during the first election, at that time we were forced to bring people from outside the province."
During October's constitutional referendum, the commission hired all 1,500 of its election workers and observers locally - a feat they expect to repeat this time around as well. "When you have the locals working with you, you have a sense of security," added Rashid.
Mosul, which is around two-thirds Sunni Arab and a quarter Kurdish, with plenty of other minorities thrown in, was also once home to much of the old Iraqi army's officer corps.
It was here that Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay took refuge before being caught and killed by coalition forces in July 2003.
Voter turnout in Mosul back in January was only 10 percent, but participation in the October referendum rose to 60 percent and all indications are that number will rise with the hotly contested December elections. Now one of the main concerns is too much enthusiasm, with many attendees expressing concerns about cheating and electoral fraud, especially by rival political and ethnic groups.
The commissioners said they are in the process of recruiting and training election observers.
Privately, however, Lami admitted he was worried about the coming elections because so much was at stake. "The next election will be very dangerous because this is for the next four years - now there ... is real power," he said.
Lami acknowledged that during the referendum, especially in Kurdish areas, results in some areas appeared to have been tampered with.
"In the next election, we will not talk about some area cheating, we will talk about a political entity cheating," he warned.
Comments
Comments are closed.