Photo By Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Smith | Maj. Gen. Habib Husseini, commander of the 10th Iraqi Army Division, addresses media...... read more read more
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BASRA, Iraq — In 2005, Iraq held two rounds of elections in a chaotic environment with heavy outside influence and security in the hands of Coalition Forces.
What a difference five years can make.
On March 7, Iraqis took to the voting booths again to make their voices heard with one significant difference: these elections, from the security to the overseeing of the process, were in the hands of Iraqis.
Iraqi Army Maj. Gen. Habib Husseini, the commander of the 10th Iraqi Army Division, said there were zero incidents in the Maysan province thanks to the teamwork between Iraqi army soldiers and Iraqi police.
"We all worked together, and we were successful because of the coordination between us," Habib said. "We are very happy and pleased to see the people as a family participate."
Habib said that the security effort was broken down into three phases: pre-election, election, and now, post-election.
Ali Salman, a Basra voter, said the process went off without any problems in his neighborhood.
"Everybody was happy, and there wasn't any trouble at all," Salman said. "For me, the elections are very important for establishing better security."
"The Iraqi forces, police and Army, did an excellent job today," he said.
Col. Steven Bullimore, commander of the 17th Fires Brigade, which is responsible for assisting Iraqi troops in Basra province, said his Soldiers' role was purely to train Iraqi Security Forces in tactics related to searching vehicles and people, first aid skills and crowd control techniques.
"Our role in this was a support role," Bullimore said. "I am absolutely amazed at how successfully this was run and how smoothly this was run."
Bullimore, who was in Iraq for the 2005 voting, added the 2010 elections were completely different from the last.
"In 2005, I was in Baqubah," Bullimore said. "At four in the morning, we had to shoot our way in with the ballots, then after the polls closed, we had to shoot our way out to take the ballots out."
Col. Aziz Swilm, a spokesman for the 10th Iraqi Army Division, said the process ran so smoothly thanks to good planning.
"This plan was laid down two months ago, involving coordination between the Iraqi army, Iraqi police and federal police," Swilm said. "The special elections had no incidents, and today's general elections, everything was successful.
"Whole families are participating," he said. "That means we have good security here in Maysan."
Swilm added that he has seen progress every time his fellow Iraqis have headed to the polls.
Once results are announced, the next phase of the election process is for the newly-elected officials to select the senior leaders in the Iraqi government.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2010 01:55 |
| Story ID: | 46870 |
| Location: | BASRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 156 |
| Downloads: | 136 |
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