The US administrator in Iraq has said it will not be possible to hold elections for a year to 15 months, putting him at odds with the country's most powerful religious leader, who has insisted any delay must be brief.
Paul Bremer, speaking in an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television channel, said Iraq needed time to prepare for elections.
"These technical problems will take time to fix -- we estimate somewhere between a year to 15 months ... There are real important technical problems why elections are not possible," Bremer said in excerpts of the interview broadcast yesterday.
"Iraq has no election law, it has no national commission to even establish a national law governing political parties, it has no voters' lists, it has not had a credible, reliable census for almost 20 years," he said. "There are no constituent boundaries to decide where elections would take place."
The interview with Bremer, who appeared to be speaking to Al Arabiya on Friday, will be aired in a regular programme tomorrow, the channel said in a news bulletin.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has backed the US position that it would not be feasible to hold elections before the planned US handover of power to Iraqis on June 30.
Iraq's powerful Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, widely seen as holding the key to Iraq's political future, said in an interview published on Friday that any delay should be brief and any interim government should have limited authority.
Asked how long polls should be delayed, he told Germany's Der Spiegel: "It should not last long."
Sistani had demanded direct elections before June 30 but recently agreed with a UN envoy that polls required adequate preparations.
Iraq's majority Shiites had protested by the tens of thousands in support of the reclusive Sistani's call for early elections this year, and they could take to the streets again if he expresses even mild criticism of Bremer's remarks.
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
RSS