The Iraqi elections of 2010 played out against a backdrop of reduced but continuing violence, unresolved issues of governance, and a U.S. government determined to exit fast. This project assesses the cross currents, on the ground in Iraq.
Iraq: Inside the Citadel
Published March 6, 2010
Dimiter Kenarov, for the Pulitzer Center
Baghdad, Iraq
Friday. A day for prayer. Two days before the national elections. Still warm and sunny.
A lieutenant from the US Army offers to escort me inside the compound of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC). It is, supposedly, the most heavily-guarded building in Iraq right now, the high fortress of democracy, the central control room of the Iraqi parliamentary elections. I haven't registered with the IHEC, so I doubt they will let me in but decide to try my luck anyway.
A man at the reception searches fruitlessly for my name in the list of accredited journalists. "Sorry," he says. "You can't go in"...
He wakes up at five in the morning and washes away his deep-sea dreams, the hot water spilling off his balding crown, running down his goatee and his bulky paunch...
Print and Image by Dimiter Kenarov, for the Pulitzer Center
Baghdad, Iraq
Grantee
Dimiter Kenarov is a freelance journalist based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a contributing editor at The Virginia Quarterly Review. His work has appeared/is forthcoming in Esquire, Outside,...
