VOA标准英语2009年-Kurdish Candidates in Iraq Campaign in Fin

Kurdish candidates are trying to rally support in the final hours before Saturday's election in Iraq's three northern provinces which constitute Kurdistan. Campaign posters dotted Kurdish cities and candidates spoke¹ on television in a frenetic crescendo² to the electoral campaign.

Kurdish TV held an electoral meeting in the closing hours of the campaign, Friday, allowing candidates to present their platforms to an eager electorate³.

Leaders of Kurdistan's two top political parties, Massoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic⁴ Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also showed campaign ads of their candidates' achievements, inaugurating dams, gas-works, sewer⁵ projects, and hotel complexes.

A number of independent parties are also competing in the election to determine the composition of Kurdistan's 111-seat parliament, and its next president. Challengers to the two main parties stand to gain seats, but appear unlikely to gain a majority.
　
Electoral workers sort through ballot⁶ boxes the day after special early voting for the Kurd-run region in northern Iraq, in Sulaimaniyah, 24 Jul 2009

Kurdistan's 2.5 million eligible⁷ voters will go to the polls, Saturday, in the provinces of Irbil, Dahuk, and Sulaimaniyah. The head of Iraq's electoral commission, Faraj al Haidari says that pre-voting, Thursday, by soldiers, prisoners and hospital patients, went well.

He says that everything got off to a good start, in a nice, peaceful atmosphere, and that the electoral commission did everything in its power to allow citizens to enter the polling stations and cast their ballots⁸. There were long lines, he notes, and both local and international observers were on hand to monitor the voting.

Haidari also told journalists that, due to technical complications, the electoral commission would probably need several weeks to count all the ballots, once voting ends, Saturday night.

The ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, where tensions between Kurds, Arabs, and ethnic⁹ Turkomans continues unabated, is one of the key issues of the campaign. Kurdish leaders want the oil-rich city to be part of their autonomous¹⁰ region.

Tukoman politician Hassan Turhan, however, insists that his group will not allow Kurdish annexation¹¹, and expresses opposition¹² to a proposed census¹³ that would determine the fate of the city.

He says that the Turkoman community is demanding changes in the proposed census in Iraq and especially in Kirkuk. If the census is held (as proposed), he warns, his group will boycott¹⁴ it, rendering¹⁵ it a failure.

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barhim Salih, who is Kurdish, told al-Arabiya TV that the "position of Kurdish leaders towards Kirkuk is well-known," alluding¹⁶ to the fact that they have long believed that it is an historic part of Kurdistan.

The Iraqi parliament is debating how to divide the country's oil wealth, but has yet to come up with a law to carve it up among the country's key ethnic and religious groups.

The Kurds had originally planned to hold a referendum over a proposed constitution for their region, as well, but opposition from the central government in Baghdad forced them to remove the issue from ballots.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 crescendo   

n.(音乐)渐强，高潮

参考例句：

• The gale reached its crescendo in the evening.狂风在晚上达到高潮。
• There was a crescendo of parliamentary and press criticism.来自议会和新闻界的批评越来越多。

3 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

4 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

5 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

6 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

7 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

8 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

10 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

11 annexation   

n.吞并，合并

参考例句：

• He mentioned the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910 .他提及1910年日本对朝鲜的吞并。
• I regard the question of annexation as belonging exclusively to the United States and Texas.我认为合并的问题，完全属于德克萨斯和美国之间的事。

12 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

13 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

14 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

15 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

16 alluding   

提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He didn't mention your name but I was sure he was alluding to you. 他没提你的名字，但是我确信他是暗指你的。
• But in fact I was alluding to my physical deficiencies. 可我实在是为自己的容貌寒心。