Tallha Abdulrazaq
Sunday’s poll was another sad day for me — as I imagine it was for many other Iraqis, if the abysmal 41 percent turnout is anything to go by. We never got the democracy we were promised, and were instead left with a grossly incompetent, highly corrupt and hyperviolent monster masquerading as a democracy and traumatizing a generation. . . .
What the miserly turnout proves is that very few Iraqis believe in democracy anymore, and certainly not the flavor that was forced upon us at gunpoint by the United States and its allies in 2003. These elections simply serve to punctuate what we already know, which is that our vote will be used to justify the mirage of democracy, while a handpicked group of elites will continue to profit as we continue to suffer.
With such deep systemic and structural problems — and with a continued lack of justice for the victims of those murdered by security forces and militias, who act with total impunity — Iraqi politics is doomed to continue on its current trajectory of rot and ruin. I, for one, will not dye my index finger blue for the sake of Iraq’s faux democracy ever again. I am certain I am not alone in my despair.