Well, it seems the big referendum in Iraq was a success.
It'll be a while yet before we find out whether the new constitution was accepted or turned down, but that's a fiddly detail: reasonable and well-informed people voted different ways; it's not like there's one side that's clearly right and one that's clearly wrong.
Actually, there is one side that's clearly wrong, and that's the side that lost big yesterday. There were three sides in the referendum: "vote YES", "vote NO", and "stay home and don't vote or we'll kill you". The third faction succeeded in tying up a lot of resources, but completely failed to make large number of voters stay home, though some (like Truth Teller, who voted NO) were considerably inconvenienced by the security measures.
Over in the comments section at ITM (Omar, by the way, voted YES), Andrea links to a collection of photos of the voting.
Despte anything the silly news commentators may have said, if the heavy turnout in the NO-leaning governorates leads to the current draft constitution being rejected, that won't be a "setback for democracy." It'll be a triumph of democracy. The whole point of a legitimate referendum is that the people do have a right to vote NO. If it's voted down, the new Assembly (to be elected) will just have to go back and try again, and try to get it right this time. If the hordes of NO-voters show up for the Assembly election, they'll have their fair share of representation when the next draft is written.
Personally, without regard to the merits of the current draft constitution, I wouldn't blame anyone for voting against it just for the way the revisions and referendum were handled. With the after-the-last-minute revisions, the voters were basically being asked to approve a pig in a poke (OK, so a sheep in a sack), and it seems that one of the late revisions means the whole thing is basically set in Jello anyway (allowing amendments immediately by a simple majority vote of the Assembly), which would make the whole "constitution" thing rather pointless - a proper constitution should be simple, durable, and difficult to amend (i.e., more like the US than like California).
Anyway, there was a big turnout and little violence, which points to the opposition turning to politics - a Good Sign. Assuming that the vote count is seen to be honest, we can hope that most Iraqis will continue to take their political system seriously, thereby further undercutting those who would (re)gain power by force.
Then maybe the neighbors will start Getting Ideas. Dominos, anyone?
Update: Varifrank is more eloquent.
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