Personal reflections on the provincial elections in Iraq from Zedan, Iraqi staff member, Baghdad.
From: Zedan, Iraqi staff member, Baghdad
What could be noticed from some personal observation from the local community in Baghdad and other provinces, is people's frustration regarding the election. It is all based on the outcomes of the last election and the bad experience that they've been through during the last three years, as well as complaints about the huge number of nominees compared to the small number of seats that should be filled. For example, our facilitators in Hilla reported to us that there are 1400 nominees to fill only about 50 seats. This is an indicator of what could be a lack of preparations and lack of election education for the parties and their nominees running in the elections, and what may be worse, that it is due to greed.