Purple pride

I'm so sorry my dear readers for being late on giving you insights for the Election Day, but you know me; I wouldn't neglect such important event unless there is a good reason. I was waiting for the New York Times to publish my article.
So here is the link for my article in the New York Times newspaper

And here is the article:
I WOKE up with hope, hope for Iraq to be taken along the correct path by its sons. I woke to the noises voters were making in the street. As I dressed I was thinking about how different this election would be. Most of the people I know were not voting based on sects, but on sense. We are sick to death of corruption and sectarianism, and desperate for a change.
Many people I spoke to had no faith in the credibility of the elections, thinking that the winners were already decided. But they wanted to do their part, hoping they might be wrong. Others voted to satisfy their consciences — especially after some religious leaders announced that it would be a sin not to participate.
I opened the door and I felt a very soft breeze. The weather was great, neither hot nor cold, perfect for a walk in the car-free streets, a walk along the sacred road to democracy. Yet with every step my hopes were crushed by a sad reality: there were far fewer people heading to the polls than there had been in previous elections. Still, there were some scenes that filled my heart with joy: for example, an elderly woman, so stooped she could barely walk, pushing her husband to a polling station in his wheelchair.
With the sparse crowds, I had only a short wait before the employee found my name in the list and gave me my voting paper. I took it to the booth and chose what I believed was best for Baghdad, then I painted my finger purple — it might look ugly, but I like it and I’m proud of it. At the same time, a child reached the table and insisted on painting his finger, too; everybody smiled because he was so happy about it.
On my way home I developed an obsession of looking at the fingertips of every man and woman I passed. Too many had no ink. I hope the electoral committee does its part better than we did. I hope the election will not be fraudulent and the winners will not let us down. And I hope the people who didn’t vote this time will do so next time, and a real democracy will be achieved in the land where the first laws of the human race were set.

And for my dear readers, here is an addition:
I went back from the polling center with my wife to our friends' house, and there we found some other friends of us and we took this photo that speaks almost everything….a group of real Iraqis; Sunnis, Shiites and a Kurd who all are united in friendship and in purple fingers, what a nice day it was, we had lots of fun and some useful political conversations.
The primary results till now shows the winning of Maliki at the first place then Dr.Ayad Alwai in the second place…If this will be the final results, then I'll be satisfied, the party I think is the best among the available candidates will take the second place; that's good for me.
And Maliki in my opinion is bad but he is much better when he left the coalition (Ali`tilaf) and left AlHakeem, and better than Sadriasts and Dr.Jaffari.
Well, I hope the candidates that people have elected and placed their faith in will not let us down.