A “No” Vote is a Good Vote, Too
Three years ago, 100 percent of Iraq’s registered voters went to the polls and 100 percent of them voted for Saddam! This weekend, just over 60 percent of registered voters voted in Iraq’s Constitutional referendum. The charter appears to have passed with a substantial Sunni opposition vote – which is a step toward good news in the convoluted way that news from Iraq is good and bad.
Three years ago, 100 percent of Iraq’s registered voters went to the polls and 100 percent of them voted for Saddam! This weekend, just over 60 percent of registered voters voted in Iraq’s Constitutional referendum. The charter appears to have passed with a substantial Sunni opposition vote – which is a step toward good news in the convoluted way that news from Iraq is good and bad.
Early tallies indicate that 77 percent of the registered voters in Fallujah went to the polls, a higher percentage of voters than turned out in Mosul and Basra, where the Constitution was popular. Ninety-seven percent of Fallujah residents voted against the referendum. This is good news? Maybe. Their position lost, but the process engaged them. It is urgent now that the U.S. and our democratic allies ensure that the Sunnis understand government as an evolving process that shuts no one out completely and no one out permanently. The upcoming parliamentary election is key.
Two concepts that have been missing in developing consensual government leading to democracy are those of minority rights and the role of the loyal opposition. These are precisely the concepts that differentiate democracies from dictatorships, which is why they are so difficult for people who have only known dictatorship – such as Iraqis. Winning an election does not wipe out those who voted differently. If there is no 100 percent winner, there can be no 100 percent loser. People/parties/concerns in the minority must be taken into account, if for no other reason than because they may win the next election. The mark of a democratic society is not what it does with the MAJORITY view that provides its mandate, but how protective it is of the MINORITY view.
And while they are the opposition, minority groups have an opportunity to make coalitions to advance their agenda through negotiation (secular-minded Sunnis will likely find allies among secular-minded Kurds on several issues, including the role of women) and to encourage voters to choose them and their platform the next time. The loyalty of the minority to the process of elected government, like the process of elections themselves, is crucial, and based on the premise that there will be another election with an opportunity for voters to register changes in their views.
It is, of course, precisely those two concepts that terrorists, secular and religious, hate. They want to rule, they want to rule completely and they want to rule permanently. They don’t want to account for minority views or changes in the mind of the public. Leftover Ba’athists, Iranian radicals, Syrian secular totalitarians, Wahabi religious totalitarians, and a ragtag of Yemenis, Afghans, Egyptians and Palestinians all swim in that swamp. They are fomenting civil war in Iraq in hopes of turning Iraqis away from a future containing choices.
The 97 percent of the 77 percent of Fallujah residents – the ones who voted “no” – are a direct rebuke to those who would simply kill the opposition. They have to be encouraged to know that a “no” vote is a good vote, too.