Iraqi Election is just a disgrace to democracy

We are heading now for election in Iraq to choose a new government. Competing political parties have lost no time in advocating their election programs that state what they, when in power, aim to achieve on different levels.
This article is not about addressing the contents of these programs, neither does it aim at pointing out their adequacies or inadequacies.
It concerns itself only with the fact that most if not all these programs seem to be advocating democracy. However, these parties, despite their ear-deafening noise about their commitment to democracy, have failed their first and most crucial test in demonstrating their real commitment to democracy during this election (and certainly prior to it). The failure reveals itself in a fashion which is as loud and evident as these parties’ claim that they are advocating democracy.
Their democratic failure is evidenced in the fact that no political party, as far as I can tell, has presented its program to the wider public through social gatherings, TV, electronic media, etc Their programs were writing and presented, to a major extent, to public as a missionary statement with an allure of sacredness, be it religious or secular. No party, again be it secular or religious, seems to have felt the need to present its (draft) program for intense, detailed and comprehensive discussions, and dia- or multilog prior to the presentation of the official, final program.
We know, to define democracy in a simplistic though valid term, that political democracy means that all participants have their own say in firstly (re)devising, and secondly implementing, programs. I am addressing here, for obvious reasons, only the fist stage of democracy, again in a schematic fashion, and asserting that Iraqi political parties have failed abysmally in the first stage of carrying through their alleged democratic commitment. Hence their claims about democracy sound as shallow as before, if not even shallower.
The presentations by political parties of their election programs are fully inconsistent with a real commitment to democracy, wherein democracy is conceived as an exercise of empowerment of the voiceless as well as a wider participation of the marginalized and disempowered. The current election in Iraq scores zero in these regards. I know of no effective involvement of the widowed, the handicapped, the unemployed, the sexual minorities (are they minorities?), the orphaned children and all other voiceless potential participants in devising these programs. This painful reality is well demonstrated in a sloppy and a patronizing notion of democracy, in which there is (almost) a total lack of empirical surveys, scientific research or polls conducted to ascertain the real needs of people on the ground; polls, even in simplistic terms that do not necessarily adhere to strict scientific methodologies, have been drastically lacking.
This election is a fake. It is conducted mainly, if not exclusively, to elevate a minority to power and enrich a tiny section of society at the expense of the vast majority of others. Its other aim is to beautify US politics and make it more palatable. The most important point, however, is that many people harbor the (escapist) illusion that election will be alleviating or ending their sufferings. These people, sadly but certainly, will be confronted with a brutal awakening sooner or later, namely, their suffering will continue or even get worse after the election. And one does not have to be a prophet to come to such a realization. Our people deserve a real, not a fake, democracy.

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