Word: turnout
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...security environment is such that even some government officials are not exactly optimistic about the turnout. Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samarrai, for example, predicts that the national turnout would be around 25 percent of eligible voters. The insurgent threat has also compelled the authorities to adopt strict security measures, such as banning all non-official vehicles from the roads on election day, that may depress turnout...
...more than one million eligible Iraqis living abroad, however, have nothing to fear from the insurgency. So reports of a low turnout among Iraqi exiles may be explained by other factors. As few as 10 percent of Iraqis living in the U.S. are expected to vote, and the worldwide total among exiles may not exceed 25 percent in the 14 countries where voting has been arranged. Analysts blame the logistical difficulties of registering and voting, and mixed feelings among exiles about the poll...
Security remains the major obstacle to holding a credible election on January 30, because of the insurgency's unchecked ability to wreak havoc at the polls. The goal of the insurgents is to keep voter turnout as low as possible, in order to deny the election legitimacy. U.S. and Iraqi leaders have already acknowledged that voting will not be possible for many of the inhabitants of four Iraqi provinces - Anbar, Nineveh, Salahdin and Baghdad - which, between them, are home to upward of 40 percent of the population. Insurgent attacks have forced the resignation of electoral workers in Anbar and Nineveh...
...coalition wins 20 percent of the nationwide vote, it will be allocated 55 seats in the Assembly - to be automatically filled by the first 55 names on the list submitted to the Iraqi Electoral Commission. (Every third candidate on every list is a woman.) Assuming a full voter turnout, a list would need to secure around 50,000 votes for each seat it wins...
...largely unfamiliar with the democratic process, this is a time of profound uncertainty. The U.S. and the interim Iraqi government are hopeful that at least half the country's 15 million eligible voters will take part in the election, but no one can predict with any certainty what the turnout will be, especially among the disaffected Sunni population, who make up about 20% of the electorate. "We have no idea," says Carlos Valenzuela, head of the U.N. team overseeing the elections. "It would be up to the Iraqi public to determine." For many, just getting to the polls will...