Iraqi elections and US/UK voting centers

[legion]

There are upwards of 1 million Iraqi citizens living outside of Iraq that are elligable to vote in the Iraqi elections at the end of this month. Between them, the UK and the US alone have around 400,000 Iraqi immigrants.

In the UK, election centers will be set up in London, Manchester and Glasgow, and in the US there will be election centers in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville (Tenn).

Given the amount of pre-election violence going on in Iraq, I wonder if anyone who lives or works near one of the election centers in the UK or the US is concerned that some kind of terrorist attack may take place?

[manhattan]

This is really more of a General Question to which the answer is “yes.” From today’s New York Times:

[Officials reported no security problems or “specific and credible threats” during the registration in any of the five cities on Monday, but security was tight all around.

Mr. Copeland said the International Organization for Migration had hired a private security company to guard inside the registration places, while local, state and federal authorities set up extensive security outside. Mr. Copeland said that he did not know how much his organization would spend on security but that the safety budget was significant.

In Nashville, where some residents had expressed safety concerns about having the program in their city, the registration sites - a Fraternal Order of Police office and a community center’s basketball court - were surrounded by guards and police officers, who barricaded nearby parking lots to anyone without official credentials. Still, along the nearby strip of fast food restaurants, a library and a park, few non-Iraqis seemed to notice that anything was taking place, much less anything potentially volatile or historic.

Elsa Aljanabi of Buford, Ga., said she had worried about going at all for fear that someone - a terrorist or someone who simply wanted to leave his mark on the tangled politics of Iraq - might try to disrupt voter registration. She said she did not mind all the metal detectors and bag searches; in fact, she liked them.

“But think about it,” said her husband, Kamal Aljanabi, as he looked around at a clear, quiet day. “We get to be where we are, preparing to vote and safe. I’m just hoping the election will be safe for those in Iraq, too.”](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/national/18absentee.html)

Obviously, there’s less concern here than there is in many places in Iraq. Equally obviously that doesn’t mean there’s no concern at all. But expat Iraqis are as eager for elections as their in-country breatheren so we and they will just put up the best security we reasonably can and hope for the best – both here and there.

[BrainGlutton]

According to news reports I’ve seen, a lot of Iraqi expats planning to vote are naturalized U.S. citizens. How can they be eligible to vote in Iraq?

[Eva_Luna]

@BrainGlutton

According to news reports I’ve seen, a lot of Iraqi expats planning to vote are naturalized U.S. citizens. How can they be eligible to vote in Iraq?

You might want to check out this recent thread:

So Why Are Americans Being Allowed To Vote In Iraq's Election?

Dual and multiple citizenship are more common than you might think.