Cooler heads prevail
On Thursday we spent a few hours at a polling station. It was all rather calm and since our hotel is situated in a middle class neighborhood, most of the voters were middle class.
The polling station was a primary school, and this being the third election held in a year, the process was down pat.
As we were going along with our work, we heard a huge commotion outside. We looked out to find a group of 20-30 men arguing because they weren’t being allowed in to vote.
After a few minutes the commander of the Iraqi National Guard unit sent to the primary school came to talk with the group. He found out that these men lived in different parts of Iraq, hence their IDs showed them to be residents of different cities.
He told the group that since they had not registered when they moved to Baghdad, they were not official residents of the neighborhood. Therefore they could not vote at this polling station. The men got agitated, voices were raised, and the arguments became more vociferous.
People on the sidelines claimed the men were from the Badr Brigade and only wanted to cause trouble. And here is where things changed.
At this point one would have expected that the arguments would have degenerated into some sort of physical violence. But the civilian representative of the election committee and the commander realized that these men could not go anywhere because of the travel ban. They got on their two-way radios, called into headquarters and received permission for the men to vote.
Minutes later the men lined up quietly, were searched by the security guards, and went in to cast their votes. And we returned to our work.
It would have been a simple occurrence in any other part of the world, with a natural outcome, that would not have raised any eyebrows. But after two and half years of daily violence the edges are frayed, requiring the necessity of cooler heads which thankfully prevailed yesterday.
Note: This blog was written on Friday, Dec. 16, but was posted today due to technical problems.
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