1995 Iraqi presidential referendum
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A presidential referendum took place in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
on October 15, 1995. It was the first direct presidential election under the rule of
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
, who had seized power through the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) in 1979. Taking the form of a
referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
with no other candidates, the election involved giving voters paper ballots that said: "Do you approve of President Saddam Hussein being the President of the Republic?"Nohlen, Dieter; Grotz, Florian; Hartmann, Christof (eds.). ''Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook, Volume 2'', p.102. Oxford University Press US (2001), They then used pens to mark "yes" or "no".Youssef M. Ibrahim, "Iraqis Go to Polls; Guess Who Will Win", ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1995 The next day,
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri ( ar, عزة إبراهيم الدوري, Izzat Ibrāhīm ad-Dūrī; 1 July 1942 – 25 October 2020) was an Iraqi politician and Army Field Marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council u ...
, Hussein's deputy in the ruling RCC, announced the incumbent had won 99.96% of some 8.4 million valid votes cast. Officially, 3,052 people voted against him (45 of them in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
),Yahia, Latif; Wendl, Karl. ''I Was Saddam's Son'', p.281-2. Arcade Publishing (1997), "No Surprise in Iraqi Vote", ''The New York Times'', October 17, 1995. Ibrahim declared: "It is an immortal day in the history of Arabism and Islam. It is a blow to the states that have harbored enmity toward Iraq and raised unjustified doubts about the legitimacy of its regime or the right of its people to choose the form of government they like." and turnout was 99.47%. The international community reacted with widespread incredulity to these figures.Taylor & Francis Group. ''The Middle East and North Africa 2004'', p.465. Routledge (2003),


Background

The election was prompted by the August defection to
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
of senior government officials
Hussein Kamel al-Majid Colonel General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid ( ar, حسين كامل حسن المجيد) ( 1954 – 23 February 1996) was the son-in-law and second cousin of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He defected to Jordan and assisted United Nations S ...
and
Saddam Kamel Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid ( ar, صدام كامل حسن المجيد; 1960 – 23 February 1996) was the second cousin and son-in-law of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He was also a part time actor. Biography He was married to Ra ...
and their wives. During the crisis that followed, Saddam took steps to control the damage; the referendum was an attempt to shore up his claim to legitimacy. At a September 7 meeting of the RCC, an interim amendment to the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
was approved whereby its chairman would automatically assume the presidency, subject to approval of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
and endorsement by national
plebiscite A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...
. Parliament approved his candidacy on September 10, setting the stage for the meticulously organised election. Prior to the election, Ba'ath Party members visited homes, making sure to ask if households had ration cards (at the time, food was scarce as a result of the
Iraq sanctions The sanctions against Iraq were a comprehensive financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Iraq. They began August 6, 1990, four days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 22, ...
); the clear implication was that the wrong kind of vote could mean no food. Voters were required to name relatives on their ballots and, according to some opposition reports, were threatened with punishment against their families if they voted "no". In a November report, the UN Special Rapporteur noted that because of the intrusiveness of the security apparatus "virtually no citizen would risk demonstrating any opposition to the Presidency or Government—or would do so at his mortal peril"; the notion that opponents would face some sort of retribution was shared by most observers. During the election, which served to emphasize that the Baath Party and the RCC were the country's true centres of power, loyal and tenacious party cadres brought voters in droves to the polling stations, themselves swamped with pro-Hussein propaganda. The result confirmed that Iraqis' fear of Saddam was greater than the severe hardship that had resulted from the sanctions.Mackey, Sandra. ''The Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein'', p.305. W. W. Norton & Company (2002),


Preparations

The campaign involved unending glorification of Saddam; for instance, General
Ali Hassan al-Majid Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( ar, علي حسن عبد المجيد التكريت, ʿAlī Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrītī; 30 November 1941 – 25 January 2010), nicknamed Chemical Ali ( ar, علي الكيمياوي, ʿAlī al-Kīm ...
declared, "O lofty mountain! O glory of Iraq! By God we have always found you in the most difficult conditions a roaring lion and a courageous horseman, one of the few true men".Hiro, Dilip. ''Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran after the Gulf Wars'', p.97. Routledge (2001), Saddam himself never appeared in public prior to the election, but paid supporters streamed through the streets, shouting "Naam, naam, Saddam" ("Yes, yes, Saddam"). A highlight came four days prior to the vote at an
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
-
Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
football game, when a dejected, pensive-looking
Uday Hussein Uday Saddam Hussein ( ar, عدي صدام حسين; 18 June 1964 – 22 July 2003) was an Iraqi politician and the eldest son of Saddam Hussein. He held numerous positions as a sports chairman, military officer and businessman, and was the head ...
(normally glamorized) was shown on television, upset by what the announcer claimed was a (probably fictitious) fire that Saddam had set to his expensive cars as punishment for attacking
Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti Watban Ibrahim al-Nasiri ( ar, وطبان إبراهيم الناصري‎; 1952 – 13 August 2015) was a senior Interior Minister of Iraq. He was the half-brother of Saddam Hussein and the brother of Barzan al-Tikriti. He was taken into co ...
and for the defections; soon afterward, Uday's role was increased as he sought to lure the men and their wives back to Iraq. Confident of popular participation, the government invited some 500 foreign journalists to witness the exercise; turnout (at least in Baghdad) was large enough to impress the visiting reporters, although the official figure was doubtless exaggerated. One Western ambassador was impressed by the show of force involved, including a unanimous vote from Karbala (centre of the 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam): "If this referendum proves anything, it is that the party is firmly in control of Iraq and Saddam runs it with an iron fist. If they can organize a referendum like this in less than three weeks, mobilize party cadres in every village, hamlet, town and city, produce precise lists for eight million voters and march all of them to the polls to say 'yes' unanimously, it means they are not about to fall".Youssef M. Ibrahim, "Vote Leaves Iraqi as Winner and West at a Loss", ''The New York Times'', October 18, 1995


Unfolding

The most common sentiment heard from ordinary voters was that Saddam had managed to keep the country together and provided strong leadership, implying his overthrow would lead to the sort of chaos seen in
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
or
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
. The top foreign observer was
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
politician
Vladimir Zhirinovsky Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, ''né'' Eidelshtein (russian: link=false, Эйдельштейн) (25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a Russian right-wing populist politician and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) fr ...
, who was treated to a palace feast with Hussein,
Tariq Aziz Tariq Aziz ( ar, طارق عزيز , 28 April 1936 – 5 June 2015) was an Iraqi politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and a close advisor of President Saddam Hussein. Their association began in the 1950s wh ...
and other top officials shortly before voting began. Following the election, on October 17 Hussein was sworn into his new term in a televised ceremony; Aziz pledged political reforms, including parliamentary elections that took place the following year.


Results


Notes

{{Iraqi elections 1995 referendums 1995 elections in Iraq 20th century in Iraq Presidential election, 1995 Referendums in Iraq Saddam Hussein Single-candidate elections October 1995 events in Iraq