Elections have come and gone in Iraq. With reports that the day passed peacefully, the whole process could have been seen as the most boring national event after the war. Najma highlights this in a rambling post which ends with: The day before yesterday a car bomb exploded close to our house, but we were warned and expected it so there were little damages (a single window). No human losses in the neighborhood, thank God. Oh, I almost forgot what this post was supposed to be about :) Yesterday I finally got to vote on something without having a fight (that something being Ninevah's Provincial Council's Elections). I was feeling dizzy, and it pretty much felt like going to an exam without studying, and I proved quite dumb at the voting room: I was about to put my ID in the voting box instead of the voting card, I didn't know which finger to put in the ink pot, and finally, I almost took the voting pen home! but I FINALLY DID IT and voted! Now I have a violet finger and it shocks me every time I see it, until I remember. But what of impressions of the bloggers themselves? Politics of Democracy I am no Communist, nor a Marxist-Leninist, I am no Socialist nor a Baathist, hardly a Nationalist not even a Pan-Arabist most likely than not, a Trotskyist I trot, alone and I love the loneliness the aloofness the wilderness… In the jungle of paper tigers am no Maoist, either. Labels, I study them then rip them off one by one… And what a pleasure to rip them off… Am no poet either, the ink is dry and the pages are crackling… like the crackling wood in a blazing fire… You sit and you know you are there, here, everywhere… This where you belong somewhere, hanging in between, in between the flames, You have no race no religion no nationality, You are beyond papers, paper tigers… I love the humility of being a no one, just a lonely voice in the cold, Just You and I treading along the path a path, with no name… Salam Pax, the original Iraqi blogger is back to blogging and back in Iraq. He sat with his family and tried to work out who to vote for: There are 18 provinces in Iraq and each will have it’s own council. The biggest is in Baghdad with 57 council members. The number of candidates campaigning for these seats is astounding … there are 2371 candidates just for Baghdad. The total number of candidates all over Iraq is an astonishing 14,400. And the noise these thousands of candidates are creating is enough to make you withhold your vote just as a protest… but all I can think is ‘who are these people?’ and I can assure you the majority of the fifteen million Iraqis who from the electorate are thinking the same. The last two times we had legislative elections it was easier the same parties and individuals were up for election in the whole country. This time it’s different in each province. And trying to find what each of the 14 thousand candidates stands for isn’t just difficult but impossible. If Salam found elections confusing, Last of Iraqis found them shady: Yesterday an independent candidate called a debate program on a local Iraqi channel and discussed one of the laws which was really strange; if a list failed to achieve the required number of points then all its points will be given to the big list!!! Well, who decides which list is big and which one is small? This is absurd let's say I chose a list for secular candidates and they didn't make it, in what reason should my voice be directed to a fanatic Islamic party? What logic is this?… Few days ago I was talking with a relative who got to read the detailed list for PM Almaliki and we really laughed a lot… In the list there is the name of the candidate, his number in the list and his higher educational level….in the field of the educational level you can see miracles one of the candidates is “doctor to-be”!!! Another is “His father is a doctor”!!! And another candidate is a real doctor (physician) but what kind of physicians he is? … Have mercy on us god But Hammorabi was more optimistic: This is important election which will shape the political demographic map in such different way than the previous one as the democratic process in Iraq moved towards better maturation. The Iraq citizens are now looking to give their voices to those who got better vision about services and building of a better life. This is more matured way compared to the previous election when more was given towards ethnic and sectarian issues. Every one is now looking for a change which is a good way and indicating some maturity. More or less the process went smooth with better freedom than the previous election which makes it more responsible way respecting the individual choices without pressure. Intimidation Two bloggers pointed to threats and intimidation by rival parties.