No matter how many journalists, commentators and diplomats put their spin on the recent election in Iraq, one thing is for sure ... the USA is relying on the simple fact that most people can't count, or won't bother to question basic math!
In recent media reports, no doubt fuelled by US propaganda, speculation about the depth of voter turnout for the Iraq election has been remarkably positive. However, if you scratch beneath the thin sugar coating one big conclusion is apparent - they fudged the numbers!
Quite simply, the math doesn't add up!
Take this article from the BBC which states what many other news sources also claim:
The overall election turnout has been estimated at about 60% [of what], with some eight million Iraqis voting. It remains unclear how many Iraqis were registered to vote.
60% of what? 8 million voters @ 60% surely must equal more than 13 million eligible voters! And if the voters weren't registered how could they vote?
Even a seventh grade student can calculate a simple percentage if given the figures. So away we go to the CIA's World Factbook, which tells us that the population of Iraq aged 15yrs+ is approximately 15 million. Given that those between 15 and 18 are probably ineligible to vote the eligible voting population would be closer to 13 million - surprise!
It then isn't hard to calculate that the "8 million" who supposedly voted is roughly equal to 60% of eligible voters. So why then is it "unlcear how many Iraqis were registered to vote"?
The only possible conclusion is that someone, somewhere, has been plucking figures out of the air. It is far more likely that 60% of registered voters placed a ballot, and that the number of registered voters was somewhat less than the maximum 13 million eligible! It is more probable that even fewer than 8 million, possibly less than 5 million, were registered to vote given the difficulties of establishing a secure electoral roll.
With all this in mind it would surprise me if the total number of ballots received exceeded 3 or 4 million under such circumstances - less than 16% of the total population.
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