Iraqi Constitution passes. Barely.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by MrFun
But everyone else is interested in taking a vacation to Mars. Why aren't you?

That wasn't funny. Try again.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Smiley

However, Ninevah Governorate was drawn in such a way that it includes a wide swath of territory in the eastern part of the governorate, currently militarily and politically controlled by the Kurds. There are a number of major towns and small cities in this region: Aqrah, Bardarash, Shaykhan ('Ain Sifni), and Kalak to name the largest four. (Aqrah is the hometown of Latif Zebari, the "bad" uncle of Iraq's current foreign minister, who had a blood feud with Mustafa Barzani since the 60's. That's another reason why this area was included in Ninevah. Latif has an interesting story - his family and followers still live in Mosul, but no longer can count on Arab support. The KDP has elected not to finish him off, as they did with Omar Surchi, another powerful agha who sided with the government against Barzani.)

First election districts and there's already gerrymandering, these guys learn fast.

The governorate boundaries were set decades ago, IIUC.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo

well I would, except i dont know that. Thats why I said that some local analysis would be interesting.

I don't know why you don't read Juan Cole regularly. He really is one of the best sources on Iraq out there, even if you disagree with his ideas for the best course on Iraq (as I currently do)...

I disagree with him on more than Iraq - its his charecterization of Israel, Israeli politics, and the relationship of the US and Israel, which goes beyond being wrong. And which I find colors much of what he has to say.

Look, from what I understand the man is a brilliant scholar of the history of Bahaism. Thats not something im particularly interested in right now. On other matters hes just one more commentator, with no particular brilliance. Some good tidbits now and then, but those tend to get repeated or linked to elsewhere - there are plenty of other good sources.

Now the pience you copied didnt actually answer my question - it said the percentage in Nineveh was probably fair. It indicated the Kurdish population had increased. It did NOT tell me if the Kurds made up 55% of the voters. If there were any Sunni Arab areas that did vote yes. It SPECULATED that the Yes vote could have all come from Kurdish areas. What I asked cant be answered without a detailed analysis of election results, which it did not provide. That will come either from professional analysis which will be done later, or from Iraqi politicians on the ground - which I dont expect to see in Cole.

Im sorry, my wording may have been misleading. When I said "local analysis" i didnt mean analysis by a local - I meant "precinct level analysis" (though Im not sure they have precincts there) I apologize for my confusing wording.

[Ramo]

I doubt that you'll ever find this election's results to that level of detail. I don't think that such results exist for the January elections (if they do, they're probably not on the internets).

And actually, the piece didn't "speculate" that the yes vote all came from Kurdish areas. Rather, the piece "speculated" that some of it came from Christians and some of it came from Shammar Sunni Arabs.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
I doubt that you'll ever find this election's results to that level of detail. I don't think that such results exist for the January elections (if they do, they're probably not on the internets).

And actually, the piece didn't "speculate" that the yes vote all came from Kurdish areas. Rather, the piece "speculated" that some of it came from Christians and some of it came from Shammar Sunni Arabs.

er yes, I missed that last. Thats why i like to highlight key points in long quotes.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
I doubt that you'll ever find this election's results to that level of detail. I don't think that such results exist for the January elections (if they do, they're probably not on the internets).
.

I presume they exist in Iraq. However I cant think of any questions from the January election that could be answered by such analysis of an importance comparable to the question of how many Sunni Arabs voted yes.