Williamston resident and Iraq native Sam Hindi is getting ready to drive more than 80 miles to vote in his home country's elections.
Hindi, 74, will travel to Southgate on Saturday to cast his ballot in the first-ever democratic Iraqi election. Detroit is one of five polling stations in the United States where eligible Iraqis can vote. There are 74 polling stations in 14 nations worldwide.
To vote, a person must be over 18 and an Iraqi citizen or born to an Iraqi father in any country.
"The best thing for democracy is free election," Hindi, a retired accountant, said. "If we don't have free election, we don't have democracy."
During the 1930s, Hindi grew up in Baghdad, under what he called an "oppressive monarch regime," and moved to the United States once he finished high school.
He said he's saddened by what his country has become and hasn't visited his homeland since 1980. Hindi said he lives in constant fear for the safety of his more than 60 relatives still living in Iraq.
But he's encouraged by the election, and thinks it will be the first step in securing the country enough for an extended visit.
"I'm still hopeful and optimistic that they will stand on their own feet one day," Hindi said. "I guess we'll have to wait and see what will happen."
This weekend, Iraqis around the world will choose from thousands of candidates from more than 100 political parties to fill the 275-member national assembly.
Elected members of the national assembly will craft and vote on the constitution.
Hindi said the elected parliament members will help create a government that is for the people.
As an Iraqi-American, Hindi said it's important to vote because as a dual citizen, he knows what will work best with the Iraqi culture.
On a scrap piece of paper, he's carefully documented everything he wants drafted into the new Iraqi constitution: free speech, freedom of religion and the press, women's rights and term limits for the president.
"The constitution is going to change the whole thing - that's the beginning," Hindi said. "That's the first step we're taking in the right direction."
Hindi said holding the elections is key to combating terrorism.
"The reason we are voting is that we have to show the terrorists that they can't beat us with their bullets," said Hindi, whose wife, Sylvia Hindi, is a retired MSU staff member.
"We will beat them with our brains."
Although she is not from Iraq, Sylvia Hindi said the elections are important to all Americans because it will help bring stability to Iraq and the world.
"We can't let the terrorists win," she said. "What happens in Iraq will affect the United States and all of the other countries."
Despite Sam Hindi's interest, others believe the election lacks international legitimacy.
"The conditions are not very approachable for a proper election - it's a joke," said Fauzi Najjar, an 84-year-old MSU professor emeritus from Lebanon.
Najjar said many people are either boycotting the elections or are too afraid to vote, so the elections won't be a true representation of the country's people.
The Iraqis who are no longer citizens and living in different countries should not be able to vote, he said.
He said he also suspects that the United States is trying to speed up the process of the Iraqi elections to legitimize withdrawing troops from the country.
"They want to say that we have established democracy in Iraq," Najjar said. "But you don't establish democracy simply by establishing things like this."
But Sam Hindi said he knows democracy doesn't come cheaply.
"You have to fight for it, you have to die for it, and right now, a lot of people are dying for it," he said.
Sam Hindi said if U.S. troops leave the country too soon, the country will be susceptible to dangerous events such as terrorists seizing Iraq and its entire oil supply.
He said, with time, the Iraqi people will know what it's like to live with safety and security.
"We do have hope and pray every day for them," Sam Hindi said.
"All we are trying to do is give them a chance - give peace a chance."
Amy Davis can be reached at davisam8@msu.edu.
