BABIL ELECTION OFFICIAL VOTES FOR SWEEPING CHANGE AT THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HILLAH 000045

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/24/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: BABIL ELECTION OFFICIAL VOTES FOR SWEEPING CHANGE AT THE
POLLS

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CLASSIFIED BY: Charles F. Hunter, Babil PRT Leader, REO
Al-Hillah, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (U) This is a PRT Babil cable.


2. (C) Summary. The Babil representative to the Independent
Electoral Commission for Iraq (IECI),Assad Abd al-Rudah,
recently shared his views with Babil IPAO about methods to
reduce electoral fraud and manipulation, including adopting a
"one-candidate, one-vote" approach to replace the closed slate
system, and thereby keep Iraq's democratic experiment moving
forward successfully. Assad also asserts that the education and
age requirements for both the candidates and voters must be
increased to prevent the inexperienced and uneducated from
gaining too much power. Finally, he believes significant
procedural transformation is crucial to prevent multiple voting
and to achieve proper oversight. End summary.

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VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE, NOT THE SLATE
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3. (C) Although Assad views the January 2005 elections as a
success for Iraq, he feels that the closed slate system used
then prevented people from knowing whom they were selecting when
they reached the polls. A coalition or political entity was
included on the ballot under the name of its slate after
registering its slate members with the IECI, paying a fee and
having at least 500 signatures of support. The slates used
their best-known candidates as their public face to attract
votes. (Note: Assad believes that the closed slate system was
used in Iraq because of the high illiteracy rate, rendering many
voters unable to recognize and choose anything more than a
symbol or a number. End note.) However, as Assad commented,
even the most knowledgeable voters were no better off in knowing
the true identity or composition of the selected slates,
likening the vote to a shopper who buys a crate of apples based
only on the shiny fruit on top, hoping that what is farther down
is not rotten.


4. (C) However, one bad apple spoiling the bunch is precisely
what took place in Babil after the January 2005 elections,
according to the province's IECI representative, the prime
example being the current Babil Provincial Council. As criminal
allegations, candidate credential scandals and death took
elected members from their seats, their replacements, as
dictated by the closed slate system, were less than desirable to
the populace, who view the PC as being corrupt and ineffective.
(Note: Seven sitting members of the Babil PC were found by the
Director General of Education, post-election, to have made false
claims of university degrees in order to meet the education
requirement for candidates. Three of the accused were removed
from the PC, but the remaining four allegedly could not be
removed based on the clout of their slate's political party.
End note.)


5. (C) To solve this dilemma, Assad suggests that an open,
one-person candidacy system be used in the future. He believes
that a candidate should register with the IECI and then make his
or her candidacy and platform so widely known that even the
illiterate would recognize the name on a ballot. This open
system would allow the voters to know what to expect from the
candidate once elected and, more importantly, whom to blame if
campaign promises are not met. Unlike under the current closed
slate system, a candidate could not misrepresent credentials and
hide behind a slate number because his or her tribe,
neighborhood, or family would know the truth, adding a greater
level of transparency to the process.

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UPPING REQUIREMENTS FOR CANDIDATES AND VOTERS
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6. (C) Assad posits, based on corruption among Babil provincial
leaders, that the qualifications and requirements for candidates
and voters need to be increased to protect this institution.
Currently, the IECI requires a candidate to be a voter no less
than 30 years of age, with at least a high school certificate.
Assad proposes that the age limit be increased to 35 years of
age and strongly emphasized the need for all candidates to have
earned university diplomas certified by an independent
commission through the Ministry of Education. These
strengthened requirements would better equip candidates
educationally and institutionally not to repeat the mistakes or
crimes of the old regime.


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7. (C) Although the IECI eligibility rules require a voter to
be a resident of the province in which he votes, it does not
impose the same requirement on a candidate. In Assad's opinion,
this oversight allows the politically savvy to manipulate the
system by running in the province they feel holds the most
potential for victory, without having any affiliations to that
province or concern for its success. With a residency
requirement, voters could expect their candidates to possess a
greater affinity for the well-being of his province and a hunger
to work toward that goal. (Note: The draft Provincial Powers
law that the Council of Representatives is considering contains
a residency requirement for candidates. End note.)


8. (C) These increased requirements are not just for the
candidates, but the voters as well. Assad feels that everyone,
from polling officials to the candidates themselves, took
advantage of illiterate voters. His biggest fear, which
apparently became a reality at some voting stations in Babil, is
that polling officials were misleading uneducated voters who
sought assistance in locating the desired slate on the ballot.
Currently, an eligible voter must be an Iraqi citizen, legally
competent, and 18 years old in the month of the elections.
However, Assad earnestly believes that as the candidates become
more cunning and educated in the democracy process, so must the
voters. He suggests raising the minimum voting age to 25, with
some proof of schooling, in order to cut down on fraud and
increase the accuracy of voting.

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BETTER CHECKS AND BALANCES AT POLLS
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9. (C) In the January 2005 elections many Iraqis were jubilant
in the opportunity to vote, eagerly waiting in long lines and
ignoring threat of militant retribution. However, as Assad
noted, the registration process for Babil voters was far from
perfect. Although the rules under the IECI require an eligible
voter to bring some form of identification in order to vote,
each polling manager had discretion whether to ask for the ID.
Registration lists were mandatory for each polling station, but
many sites simply checked a voter's hand for traces of ink
before passing a ballot in an effort to avoid using the
unorganized lists and to reduce the exposed waiting lines.
Assad believes that many loyalists voted multiple times by
wiping their fingers clean and getting back in line. Finally,
proxy voting was allowed for those who were sick or otherwise
unable to make it to the polls, and with no method to protect
the choice of the voter, the proxy was given a free pass to
ignore these wishes.


10. (C) Assad believes that swipe cards are essential to ensure
an accurate election. Each voter would be issued a single-use
swipe card, with the voter's name on it; upon entering the
polling site, a voter would be required to show a photo ID and
swipe the card prior to receiving a ballot. Once swiped, the
card would be confiscated to prevent multiple voting. For those
voting by proxy, the proxy must present the voter's swipe card,
photo ID, and signed documentation explaining why the voter
could not come to the polls and for whom he would like to cast
his vote. Without these papers, the vote would not be
permitted. (Note: Assad would like to use the absentee ballot
method, but fears that the country's postal system is not up to
that time-sensitive task. End note.)

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REDUCE THE NUMBER OF POLLING STATIONS
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11. (C) According to Assad's figures, in 2005 Babil had 25
branch ballot sites, overseeing over 300 neighborhood polling
stations, with approximately two thousand employees to assist in
collecting the votes. As the Babil IECI representative, he had
the daunting task of supervising all of these sites to ensure
the highest levels of transparency. Although he acknowledges
that security dictated the large number of election sites, Assad
believes that Babil's decreased violence and the public's desire
to remove the current leadership would allow the number of
polling centers to be greatly reduced. In his view, people
would be willing to travel some distance to exercise their
rights. On the other hand, he fears that people are becoming
disillusioned about the electoral process and may stay away
absent either voting reform or more stringent candidate
qualifications.

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COMMENT
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12. (C) PRT Babil has heard from several contacts, including

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Assad, that the public's faith is dwindling concerning the next
provincial elections, though the linkage to a desire for voting
process transformation was new. Assad's assessment of how to
improve the electoral system, via action by the Council of
Representatives, strikes us as mostly on the mark. In light of
the widely held view that it is time for a political change in
Babil, however, the wisdom of excluding all 18-to-25-year-olds
from the process is debatable. End comment.
HUNTER