Homaira Naseem and Noman Khanani were elected as National Delegates for Bernie Sanders in a caucus held in Greenfield, Massachusetts on April 9, 2016.

When 70+ Muslim voters traveled 90 miles to support a cause - history was made - and Unity of purpose achieved.  The members from WIC and ISGW registered Democrats all took the time out to support the Muslim candidates. Farooq Ansari and Tahir Ali both former delegates, were busy forming alliances and horse trading and working with the media, respectively, while Manal Ansari, Sakina Kazmi, Raza Anjum, Ayesha Yousaf and  Rashid Shaikh, volunteered to help out to speed up the election process. Our community had the highest number of youth volunteers and voters. Also in Framingham area in District 5, Nazda Alam was also elected as a delegate.

We should all take cognizant to the fact that out of a US population of over 300M, about 2,500 Democrat delegates are only elected, and Homaira, Nazda and Noman will be one of them.

Lisa Mosczynski, the caucus chair, had her hands full. She was busy making announcements and guiding people where and how to register. As the crowd kept becoming larger she was seen running all over the place to keep things under control. Sensing that Lisa needed help the young volunteers from our community stepped up to help her out. Michael Ciota playing the parliamentarian role, called the meeting to order, and explained the voting process -  "I had to make sure procedures get followed properly,"  Ciota said, adding "its a pretty good turnout." Ciota is seen talking to Noman in one of the photos.

There were two male and one female candidate delegate positions up for election, including one male alternate. There were 5 male candidates, including Noman, and 6 females, including Homaira (all shown in photo). 

Each candidate was allotted 2 minutes to deliver a speech. Candidate who received 50% +1 will be declared the winner, if any candidate who got less than 15% will be removed from the list if a run-off is necessary. If none of the remaining candidate crossed the 50% mark then another round of voting will take place.

Noman Khanani received 107 of the 176 votes, hence was declared the winner. The remaining candidates (James Bedard, Peter Colbert and Tyler Wolanin) ran for the second male position.  We formed an alliance with James and voted for him, he received 68 out of the 120 votes cast. Then in a run off Homaira Naseem got 72 votes out of 134 and was declared the winner with the help of some votes coming from James Bedard supporters. Peter Colbert got 44/62 and was elected as the alternate. (James and Peter seen in the photo)

After the election one of the best remarks came from an attendee, who said, "You are from the Islamic centers in Worcester. You all came so much prepared and organized. And you put a women in the leadership position - something contrary to what we are led to believe in reference to women being oppressed in Islam."

Amanda Drane seen in photo interviewing Tahir Ali, was also impressed by turnout. Noman, who was exuberant in his two-minute speech told Amanda, “I’m someone involved in politics because of Bernie Sanders,” Homaira explained to Amanda that "Bernie Sanders struck me with his willingness to take stands on issues others won’t even talk about."

Homaira, hails from India. A graduate of Aligarh University, she is a Scientist and inventor by trade with 3 patents to her name. Noman, 24, is born in USA. His parents are from Pakistan and Grand Parents from India. Nazda, hails from Bangladesh. 

The South Asian community has a right to be proud of Noman, Homaira and Nazda and they all look forward to going to the National DNC in Philadelphia in July.

Former delegates, Tahir Ali and Farooq Ansari along State committee man Parwez Wahid were all very instrumental in providing the guidance. 

Photo courtesy Khalid Naseem.