A presidential referendum was held last week in Iraq to decide if Saddam Hussein would lead the Middle-Eastern nation for another seven years. Iraqi officials report that President Hussein won 100 percent backing from his people.
Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council, recently announced that Hussein won complete backing on whether or not he will rule for seven more years. Ibrahim insists that every one of the eligible 11,445,638 voters is in favor of Hussein.
During the voting process, many Iraqis were seen trampling American flags while signing their ballots in their own blood as a display of loyalty to Hussein.
The referendum took 12 hours and carried a celebratory feel. Pictures of Hussein hung in polling locations while drinks and biscuits were served.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that the referendum is not a very serious vote and that nobody places any credibility on it.
“You can’t have free elections when the electorate goes to the polls in the knowledge that they have only one candidate, that the candidate routinely murders and tortures opponents of the regime and the penalty for slandering that sole candidate is to have one’s tongue cut out,” said the prime minister’s office in London.
While the Iraqi government tried to portray Hussein as loved by all, north of Baghdad in some Kurdish regions, many did not support the Iraqi President. The Kurds, who were not required to vote, expressed their feelings in an opinion poll that found dramatic opposition.
Almost 95 percent of the 3,500 people questioned were against Saddam Hussein being re-elected as president.
While Hussein was being re-elected, American and British officials were busy discussing plans of war against the same man.
The two nations want a new United Nations Security Council resolution that would give UN weapons inspectors full power to uncover Iraqi weapons and to trigger a war if Iraq resists full inspections.