Friday, January 21, 2005

When we said weeks ago on this blog that we expect 80 % of the eligible voters to participate in the elections we were considered to be far from representing the main stream opinion in Iraq.
Now, I guess the results of this poll which were published on the Washington Post tells the naysayers something and proves that we didn't build our predictions from vacuum.

Still, there's one part of the Post's piece that I don't agree with:

"The poll, which surveyed 1,900 Iraqis in all but two of the country's 18 provinces. Poor security made two in the far north, Nineveh and Dohuk, inaccessible. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points"

Because Duhok (not Dohuk) is one of the safest cities in the country. I understand that its proximity with Nieveh (Mosul) makes access rather difficult from that particular road but that's not the only road to reach the city which can be accessed from Erbil or even from the borders with Turkey.
What I want to say here is that the result would've been even higher if Duhok was included in the survey and the percentage would be undefined in only one province rather than two.

Now that the Iraqi people have made their choice clear, it's the interim government's and the coalition's responsibility to clear the way for the people so that they can practice their freedom of choice.



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