Print

Mail

wiki links

No security, no election aid, UN says

A US soldier from the Second Armed Cavalry Regiment fires an M-4 assault rifle at insurgents in Najaf, Iraq on Monday. The US soldiers, based in two camps, Golf and Baker, in the city of Najaf, fired back after insurgents attacked US camps with mortars, rocket propelled grenades and other small arms. PHOTO: AP

Planning for national elections in Iraq is ahead of schedule, but violence must decline for the UN to oversee them, the chief of the organization's electoral assistance division said Monday.

"If security does not improve, the UN won't participate in elections," said the official, Carina Perelli.

Perelli said an estimated US$260 million had been set aside to pay for the voting, scheduled for January, and she expressed confidence that an electoral commission could be formed by the end of May, six weeks ahead of schedule.

"Security aside, we are better than on track," she said in a news conference, detailing the technical steps that had been taken.

She acknowledged that there had been a deterioration in security since she began her mission to Baghdad this year to advise on elections, but she reasoned that the act of holding elections itself could bring stability.

"We don't know how the situation is going to be," she said, "but once you announce an electoral process, if the voters start to believe in it and take ownership of it, then a process of fighting for the right to hold elections can occur."

Perelli, 46, a political scientist from Uruguay, has been chief of the electoral unit since 1998 and is experienced in setting up balloting in conflicted places like East Timor, Liberia and Afghanistan.

Asked what encouraged her to think that elections could go forward in Iraq, she said, "Basically what I have seen is a very, very strong desire and commitment to have their voices heard for the first time."

Under the current arrangement, a caretaker administration takes over from the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority on June 30, and the electoral commission, advised by Perelli and her team of experts, will then prepare the way for elections for a 275-member national assembly by Jan. 31.

That assembly will then write a constitution, and a second national election will take place in December next year.

Perelli said the plan was to hold three simultaneous elections on Jan. 31 for the assembly, for provincial assemblies in various regions of Iraq and for the assembly for the autonomous province of Kurdistan.

Nominations for the seven-member electoral commission and the non-voting post of director general of elections opened on Sunday and will continue through May 15. The final names will be vetted by a three-member panel of international election experts, and the commission applicants must pledge to drop all political party activities if chosen.

Perelli conceded that the process was "cumbersome," but she explained, "In elections, the process is as important as the outcome."
This story has been viewed 2241 times.