Iraq’s politicians, fearing that voters have wearied of speech-making that often proves to be little more than hot air, have hired a slew of singers to woo them.
They have bought the pens of poets and the voices of performers to sing their praises on the nation’s television and radio networks ahead of tomorrow’s (Sun) vote, the second parliamentary ballot since former president Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.
“You alone resisted the tyrants, you are the protector of the Tigris and the Euphrates who brought back to us life and security,” goes one refrain as pictures flash across the screen of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visiting schools and shaking hands.
“National Alliance, we are with you. All the people are following in your footsteps and will vote for you,” sings another choir on Al-Forat television in praise of the Iraqi National Alliance, the main Shiite religious list and a rival to Maliki’s coalition.
“Hashemi, O Hashemi, you kept the promises you made to the people,” is the song for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi that can be heard on Al-Babyliya and other Sunni-run television stations.
“Iraqis, like all Arabs, are sentimental,” said Ahmed Mahdi, a press attache for Al-Forat television. “You can win them over with music, not with speeches.”
Musical campaigning was a godsend for many Iraqi singers, he added.
“We pay US$1,000 a song but often the poets and singers work for free because they can get exposure on television or because they believe it is important to get people to vote,” he said.
Salah Abdel Ghafour, a 57-year-old poet and singer and one of the best paid of the batch, insists his work backs no political party but is simply a call for people to exercise their democratic rights. “In my song, I say that all the candidates’ posters are worth nothing because the best poster is that of Iraq,” he said.
Ghafour’s Oh people, take care of your Iraq is repeated throughout the day on the state-funded Al-Iraqiya channel.
Poetry, which also figures in the election campaign, is “more seductive than candidates’ speeches or invectives,” poet Karim al-Lami said.
In the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional northern city of Kirkuk, the TERT television station, run by the Turkmen minority, has called upon Turkman poet Jomhour Karkouki to provide several works.
“Kirkuk is and will remain Turkman, Kirkuk is Iraqi,” one of them says.
Turn over to the Kirkuk TV channel, a Kurdish-run station, and the viewer can hear calls for the disputed city to be annexed to Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region and for voters to plump for the Kurdistani Alliance in Sunday’s vote.
Meanwhile, Iraqis living abroad have began casting ballots. Hundreds are lining up at stations in Syria, home to the largest Iraqi expatriate community.
The UN refugee agency estimates that about 2 million Iraqis are living abroad after fleeing since the 2003 US-led invasion.
In addition to Syria, voting began yesterday in the US, Canada, Australia, Austria, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Holland, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The balloting will go on for three days.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS