It was the voice of the Iraqi people that was being heard yesterday, not the bomb blasts of the terrorists. What little violence there was as millions crowded toward their local polling stations only served to demonstrate how incoherent and pointless are the efforts of the men of violence to change the country through further bloodshed.
President Jalal Talabani had asked Iraqis to treat election day as a day of celebration and celebrate is what most people did. Whatever his or her political views, virtually every voter who was asked agreed that this was a momentous day, which well deserved the often party-like atmosphere that gripped the heavily patrolled, traffic-free streets. Time and again Iraqis told inquiring journalists that this was the moment when they took control of their country, the beginning of the end of the US-led occupation and — though this was generally voiced more cautiously — the beginning of the end of insurgent violence.
It will be some time before it is known which of the 6,655 candidates from an astonishing 307 different political parties has won one of the 275 seats in the first freely elected Parliament in Iraq’s history. What is clear, however, is that all Iraqis won a victory yesterday — a victory of peace over violence, of negotiation over nihilism, of brotherhood over bigotry.
No one should pretend, of course, that the violence will now end rapidly. But the display of determination by all Iraqis to participate in the democratic process must have made a deep impression on all but the most hardened terrorists. The fact that so many Sunnis trooped to the polling stations for the first time, having boycotted the previous two national votes, sends the clear message that the community which most of the insurgents pretend to represent wants peace, not violence. Nor are they prepared to be intimidated by the killers in their midst. They want to become part of the political process.
Whatever the final composition of Parliament, this was a vote for peace. The next stage is for the newly elected politicians to form a government and an opposition, which will fairly reflect the views of all communities. As we saw over the constitution, there will be protracted horse-trading and indeed further adjustments to be negotiated to that very document. Such negotiations must be conducted in a spirit of fairness and compromise. Wherever possible, Iraq’s new legislators must seek consensus and avoid entrenched positions.
Beginning today, this is democracy’s chance in Iraq. Massive hopes are riding on the success of the political process. Nevertheless, providing men of moderation can hold the center ground and bring more extreme politicians at least to its edge, the new Parliament can work. A muscular broad-based administration will only emerge if politicians are prepared to work together for the greater good. Now is not the time for individual political aspirations to come to the fore. Future Iraqis will honor all those who today focus on stability rather than their own ambitions.
