via Global Beat:
At least some Iraqis are likely to be brave enough to vote in the upcoming U.S.-sponsored elections, but it is not clear that they understand exactly whom or what they will be voting for. A survey carried out by the Institute for War Peace Reporting indicates that most Iraqis think they will be voting for a president, not a 275-member parliament. Candidates’ names are not being listed in advance for security reason. Instead, voters will pick a party. In reality, Hiwa Osman, who is training a rash of new reporters in northern Iraq, thinks most Iraqis will be voting for an ethnic identity, be it Kurd, Sunni or Shiite. That, Osman suggests, may spell the end of Iraq’s identity as a unified country in which all three groups could live together. A major problem, Osman says, is the information gap. Commercial Arab TV channels, which are Sunni oriented, are having a “nervous breakdown” as the former Sunni elite faces inevitable eclipse. The Coalition-backed TV and media outlets were entrusted to a Pentagon contractor, Harris, which subcontracted to a Lebanese company. The only problem, says Osman, is that the Lebanese don’t seem to be able to understand the mentality in Iraq. Osman, who has some of the sharpest insights into the elections voiced so far, is interviewed by WNYC’s “On the Media.” The interview is in streaming audio for the moment, but an online transcript is promised for Wednesday afternoon.
(Hiwa Osman, interviewed by Brooke Gladstone, On the Media, January 15, 2005)