- Title: AUSTRALIA: EXPATRIATE IRAQIS REGISTER TO VOTE FOR IRAQ'S DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS
- Date: 17th January 2005
- Summary: AUBURN, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (JANUARY 17, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. NASSIMA BARZANI, KURDISH IRAQI WIDOW, ENTERS OFFICE AS FIRST EXPAT TO REGISTER FOR IRAQ ELECTION 0.05 2. CU; REGISTRATION OFFICER TALKING TO BARZANI 0.11 3. BARZANI LISTENING TO OFFICIAL 0.16 4. SCU; BARZANI'S FACE 0.20 5. CU: OFFICIAL CHECKING BARZANI'S PASSPORT AND MEDICARE CARD 0.25 6. BARZANI SITTING 0.32 7. CU: BARZANI PRESSING THUMB TO MAKE PRINT ON REGISTRATION 0.38 8. OFFICIAL PASSING CARD TO BARZANI 0.44 9. IRAQI'S REGISTERING TO VOTE 0.50 10. (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) NASSIMA BARZANI, FIRST IRAQI TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN AUSTRALIA, SAYING: "I lost lots of friends and relatives in Saddam Hussein's regime and I have never voted before. This is the first time in my life I have voted and I am voting for our future. I am coming for freedom, democracy and human rights." 1.03 11. KASSIM ABOOD TALKING TO THE MEDIA 1.10 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) KASSIM ABOOD, SENIOR IRAQI ADVISOR TO THE OUT OF COUNTRY VOTING PROGRAM, SAYING: "All the Iraqi people have been waiting for this day. It's 24 years for me and there are more people who have been waiting for more than that. It's an historic event to put our country on the first step to democracy and stability. And Iraqi people look at it as a vote against terrorism and to rebuild a new Iraq for all Iraq people." 1.32 13. IRAQI MAN REGISTERING WITH OFFICIAL 1.39 14. CU; MANS FACE 1.44 15. CU: OFFICIAL CHECKING DRIVERS LICENCE AND PHOTO 1.49 16. VARIOUS OF AYATOLLAH SHEIKH MOHAMMAD HUSSEIN ALANSARI REGISTERING TO VOTE (2 SHOTS) 2.02 17. CU: IRAQI WOMEN REGISTERING TO VOTE 2.08 18. IRAQI WOMAN'S FATHER CHECKING HER PASSPORT 2.15 19. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AYATOLLAH SHEIKH MOHAMMAD HUSSEIN ALANSARI, OF ALRASOOL ALA'ADHAM MOSQUE, SAYING: "It's a feeling of hope that the land of Mesopotamia will have a free and very good future. And to be honest a peaceful future for Iraq means a peaceful future for all the world. Because as we know now, all the world if affected by all the wrong things going in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, and we hope that this will be a gateway for all of us to live in peace." 2.42 20. AYATOLLAH SHEIKH MOHAMMAD HUSSEIN ALANSARI WALKING DOWN THE STREET 2.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st February 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: AUBURN, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
- Country: Australia
- Reuters ID: LVA1PQTT2P3G16NX53X0GFPGMFSB
- Story Text: A Kurdish Iraqi widow in Australia has been the
first expat Iraqi exile to register to vote in the Iraq
elections.
Iraqis around the world began registering on
Monday (January 17) to vote in their war-torn country's
first democratic election on Jan. 30, with a Kurdish Iraqi
widow in Australia the world's first exile to register.
In Sydney, Iraqis flowed into registration centres as
soon as the doors opened.
Women dressed traditionally, some pushing prams and
cradling children, and Muslim leaders in white turban and
ornate robes, proudly produced ID papers, intent to have a
say in the future of their battered homeland.
Between 1.0 million and 1.5 million Iraqis outside
their homeland are expected to register to vote.
The Iraq election is billed as the first fully
democratic poll since the former ruling Baathist party,
later led by U.S.-ousted president Saddam Hussein, came to
power in 1968 in a military coup.
Kurdish widow Nassima Barzani has been a refugee in
Australia since 1995 after she and her late husband, a
Kurdish rebel fighter, fled Iraq along with 130,000 others
Kurds in 1975.
It is the first time 68-year-old Barzani has ever been
able to vote.
"I lost lots of friends and relatives in Saddam
Hussein's regime and I have never voted before. This is
the first time in my life I have voted and I am voting for
our future. I am coming for freedom, democracy and human
rights," Nassima Barzani, 68, said.
Australia was the first of 14 nations to register Iraqi
expatriates ahead of the poll which will elect a
transitional national assembly.
Voting outside Iraq will take place Jan. 28-30.
For many Iraqis, including one advisor to the overseas
voting programme in Australia, it was a historic day.
"All the Iraqi people have been waiting for this day.
It's 24 years for me and there are more people who have
been waiting for more than that," said Kassim Abood, senior
Iraqi advisor to the OCV programme in Australia. It's an
historic event to put our country on the first step to
democracy and stability. And
Iraqi people look at it as a vote against terrorism and to
rebuild a new Iraq for all Iraq people," Kassim Abood,
advisor to the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting (OCV) in
Australia.
Iraq's interim government and its American allies
insist the poll will go ahead despite a violent insurgency
which threatens to scare away many voters. All Iraqis aged
over 18 on Jan. 1 can vote -- perhaps 15 million out of a
population of 26 million.
"It's a feeling of hope that the land of Mesopotamia
will have a free and very good future. And to be honest a
peaceful future for Iraq means a peaceful future for all
the world. Because as we know now, all the world if
affected by all the wrong things going in the Middle East,
especially in Iraq, and we hope that this will be a gateway
for all of us to live in peace," Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammad
Hussein Alansari said in Sydney said.
Between 30,000 and 40,000 Iraqis in Australia are
expected to register during a seven-day registration period.
Many Iraqis in Australia who fled their homeland
fearing persecution under Saddam and paid people smugglers
to sail them in leaky boats from Indonesia to Australia's
remote western desert coast.
On arrival in Australia hundreds were detained, some
for years, in desert detention camps until Australia
verified their claims of persecution and granted them
asylum. Registration papers had been sent to 26 Iraqis
still in detention camps.
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