Wednesday Talk

Joost Hiltermann

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF IRAQ'S PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS

Mr. Joost Hiltermann is the Deputy Director of Middle East and North Africa Program of International Crisis Group. He is the author of two books: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja(Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women's Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton University Press, 1991). 

In his speech Mr. Hiltermann delivered detailed information together with statistical data on the local elections that took place in Iraq in January 2009. Mr. Hiltermann began his presentation by evaluating the precedent elections of 2005 in Iraq and continued with giving an extensive account of the results of the votes that each party has gained in each province. He also drew the audience’s attention to the fragmented political situation in Iraq and by mainly noting the fact that the four major parties gained only 40 percent of the votes.