Iraqis voting around the world

These are just some of the headlines I have come accross from CNN


An Iraqi man votes in Southgate, Michigan.

The voting in Iraq doesn't start until Sunday, but more than 280,000 expatriates in 14 countries can vote today.

(CNN) -- As Iraqi expatriates in countries around the globe are voting Friday
Although the voting in Iraq doesn't start until Sunday, more than 280,000 expatriates in 14 countries -- many of whom fled during Saddam Hussein's regime -- are eligible to vote over a three-day period beginning Friday.

The ability of Iraqis to vote in safety in other nations contrasts with the prospect of voting in Iraq, where Iraqi and U.S. forces are trying to defend voters and polling places against insurgents. On Friday, leaflets appeared in two Baghdad neighborhoods that threated to fill Baghdad's streets with voters' blood.

Early voting

The largest single contingent of registered expat voters -- more than 60,000 -- is in Iran. About 31,000 are registered in both Sweden and Britain; more than 25,000 are registered in Germany and about the same number in the United States.
The first expatriots to cast ballots were in Australia, where about 11,000 Iraqis are registered.
In Sydney, Shimon Haddad boasted to CNN that he was the first Iraqi in the world to vote, saying it was a "very happy and exciting day" for Iraqis in the country.
Haddad, manager of the city's biggest temporary polling station, said he took the opportunity to vote just before the polls opened at 7 a.m. (3 p.m. ET Thursday) because he knew he would be busy for the rest of the day.

Our pride, by first Iraqis to vote
(CNN) -- In Syria on Friday, an Iraqi expatriate, voting in the nation's first free elections in more than half a century, said he felt "as if I've just been born."

In London, an Iraqi woman called it "the best thing I have actually ever done in my life." And in Australia, the first person in the world to cast a ballot in the elections described himself as "very excited, very happy."

"Happy because I vote -- the first time in our life we were allowed to vote for a democratic government," Shimon Haddad told CNN. As manager of the biggest voting center in Australia, he voted about 15 minutes before the polls officially opened at 7 a.m. (2000 GMT Thursday) in Sydney.

Iraqi expatriates -- a great many of them exiles who fled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship -- can vote in 14 countries from the United States to Europe to the Middle East. As many as 280,000 expatriates are expected to vote.

Voting in Iraq will take place Sunday. Unlike in that country, voters in most others had little fear of their security in going to the polling sites.

The jubilation was clear everywhere, including the United States, in which Iraqis can vote in one of five cities.More from CNN source

Does anyone see a problem with this?Voting in the US for another country.
Im kinda on the fence really.What if you moved to France and became a citizen,but voted for another countries leader and it was a legal and counted vote.

ex·pa·tri·ate
v. ex·pa·tri·at·ed, ex·pa·tri·at·ing, ex·pa·tri·ates
v. tr.

1. To send into exile. See Synonyms at banish.
2. To remove (oneself) from residence in one's native land.


v. intr.

1. To give up residence in one's homeland.
2. To renounce allegiance to one's homeland.


n. (-t, -t)

1. One who has taken up residence in a foreign country.
2. One who has renounced one's native land.

So why vote and why should it count

The only thing about the voting is, why should they be able to vote when most of them has not desire to go back to their country to help build it.

As one Iraqi man was explaining why he was not voting, he said in his own words that he was in America now and he has not reason to vote when he is no longer in Iraq.

I think he made a good point.

Perhaps the administration is trying to get votes abroad in case the situation in Iraq with the real Iraqis that are caught in the mess of what their country has become can not make it to the voting areas the way they will like them to.

Hopefully things will be OK at least for one day for the Iraqis that have enough suffering in their lives already perhaps they will have a chance to vote.

the problem is that the sunnis will protest they didnt get a fair vote. just give it all to the kurds.

I think all the news ,on the vote is just the same old, B.S. Propaganda.