Buying Votes in Iraq

There are many ways to describe the campaign strategies now being employed in Iraq. Subtle is not one of them.

Across the country, voters are reaping a windfall as candidates in Sunday’s parliamentary elections offer gifts like heating oil and rice. When a candidate recently showed up in a poor village outside Baquba to distribute frozen chickens — in a literal homage to the political slogan “a chicken in every pot” — so many people rushed to get the free birds that many left disappointed after the supply ran out.

Is this vote buying a bad thing?  Maybe not.

Under secret ballots a candidate cannot verify how bribe recipients voted, so gifts might generate goodwill or signal something about candidate quality, but they hardly guarantee victory.

And why shouldn’t voters be able to consider a candidate’s willingness to pass out gifts as one measure of candidate quality?  Perhaps richer candidates are smarter.  Perhaps richer candidates respect property rights.  Perhaps candidates who secure substantial donations are more likely to weigh economic costs and benefits, rather than religious fervor, in choosing policies.

In any case, shoudn’t the freedom to vote mean the freedom to choose candidates on whatever basis the voters wish?

At least for now, Iraqi elections are free of campaign finance laws.  So in that sense, Iraqis are freer than Americans.

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