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By Tom Elia
October 15, 2002
The New Editor
(This column originally appeared in FrontPage Magazine.)
On the eve of Saddam Hussein's re-election bid, the most recent poll of the Iraqi electorate
shows that the race is still too close to call, with Saddam garnering only about 99% support
in Tuesday's upcoming 'up-or-down' election, well within the poll's margin of error of 100%.
The results of the latest poll have Iraqi political experts calling the race a "toss-up."
The poll, conducted in face-to-face street interviews with 692 respondents, attempted to
reproduce actual polling place experience by conducting the interviews under the most
intimidating circumstances possible.
The great bulk of the interviews were held in the presence of armed Iraqi soldiers or in secret
at gunpoint, under the threat of death from Iraqi government officials, just like the real
elections, said a spokesman for the Iraqi polling firm Yes, Yes, Yes, Saddam! Associates Ltd.
Saddam barely won his last election in 1995, getting only 99.97% of the vote.
The election, in which ballots will feature only Saddam's name, is expected to turn out over
11 million voters.
Reports that the Iraqi regime manipulates food rations for families as a means to coerce
voters is waived off by one Iraqi governmental official as "mere circumstantial happenstance."
"The withholding of food, to the extent that it happens, in no way influences Saddam's
political support," said the unidentified official.
Another unidentified Iraqi official strongly disagreed with the notion that the Iraqi
government's intimidation played a part in Saddam's support.
"You Americans think you know everything," said the official. "Clearly, you don't understand
our political culture," the official added.
"Saddam is not intimidating the Iraqi people into voting for him; he is only joking with the
people because he loves them so," he asserted. "The Iraqi people know this; it makes them
happy to have such a great, yet jovial man leading our country. This is why he is so popular."
Despite the closeness of Monday's poll, experts and bookmakers expect Saddam to win in a
tight election on Tuesday.
"My money's on Hussein," said an unidentified bookie. "He knows how to win these things."
Tom Elia is a contributing editor for The New Editor.
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