Low turnout in Iraq's election reflects a disillusioned nation

Source: McClatchy Newspapers
Voter turnout in Iraq's provincial elections Saturday was the lowest in the nation's short history as a democracy, despite a relative calm across the nation. Only about 7.5 million of more than 14 million registered voters went to the polls.
Interviews suggest that the low voter turnout is an indication of Iraqi disenchantment with a democracy that, so far, has brought them very little.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and the fall of a brutal dictator, Iraqis witnessed unprecedented violence in their nation and what they believe is humiliation under a foreign occupation. Even on Saturday, U.S. tanks could be spotted across Baghdad on largely empty roads.
Following elections in 2005 Iraq spiraled into a sectarian war. People cowered in their homes while others literally killed each other in the streets. Many here feel the people they elected were party to or at least complicit in the violence. The security forces, too, were feared as sectarian death squads; Iraqis believed that American raids or passing U.S. tanks sometimes resulted in innocent civilian deaths.
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