Iraqis await UN verdict on elections as differences persist

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 19, 2004

Iraqis await UN verdict on elections as differences persist

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due to meet his Iraq envoy in New York on Thursday to receive his report on general elections in the war-torn country before power transfer on June 30.

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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due to meet his Iraq envoy in New York on Thursday to receive his report on general elections in the war-torn country before power transfer on June 30.

Annan is due to issue a verdict on the feasibility of general elections after receiving the report from Lakhdar Brahimi, who helda week-long intensive consultations on the issue with Iraqi political, religious and ethnic figures.

Brahimi, who has led a 6-member UN mission to Iraq, is expected to insert in his report to Annan a timetable for general elections.

Iraqi Shiite majority, represented by their top cleric AyatollahAli Al-Sistani, wanted the elections to be held before the scheduled power handover.

However, the United States, which led a war last year to oust former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, insisted that there is no enough time to organize such elections before transfer of power.

Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority agreed with the United States in opposing early elections, fearing that such a move might bring a Shiite-dominated government.

The Sunni-dominated Shura Council, one of the a few Iraqi Sunni religious organizations in post-war Iraq, said that holding elections now "will amount to a Shiite coup."

The Shiites in Iraq account for 60 percent of the 25-million Iraqi people while the Arab Sunnis are estimated at 20 percent.

Iraq Today, one of the English-language publications in post-warIraq, said that the rift over elections had broadened the gap between Iraqi's Shiite and Sunni Muslims, "a trend that Brahimi described as part of a rising communal tensions that pose very serious dangers."

Arab and Kurdish Sunni leaders opposed the idea of early elections, concerning that the conservatives endorsed by religious leaders would dominate a popularly elected Shiite government.

Furthermore, security is another reason that the elections will not be held soon. Nearly 700 Iraqis have been killed and more than 1,000 others injured in armed attacks and car bombings since the end of Iraq war last May.

However, Jalal Talabani, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council(IGC), has put forward a new idea to solve the deadlock over early elections. His proposal is that the IGC take power on June 30 if elections are not held by then to form a transitional government.

The IGC and Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, signed an accord last November providing for power handover to the Iraqis in June.

However, the accord puts elections as late as in 2005 and favorsregional caucuses as a way to select representatives to the transitional assembly, which would elect the Iraqi government.

Mowaffaq Rubai, a Shiite IGC member close to Al-Sistani, said that the Iranian-born Ayatollah might not object to elections laterin the year as long as the caucuses are not held.

Another IGC member, Ghazi Al-Yawar, a Sunni, said that the idea of regional caucuses "is no longer on the table after the IGC abandoned it completely."

However, all these differences are expected to be resolved in one way or another after Annan makes a verdict on Iraqi general elections.

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