U.N. Team in Iraq to Settle Vote Question
Sat Feb 7, 3:16 PM ET
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.N. team began its mission in Iraq on Saturday to study prospects for early legislative elections
opposed by the United States but demanded by the powerful Shiite
Muslim clergy.
The Sunni Muslim president of Iraq's
Governing Council, however, insisted the
U.N. findings will not be binding on the Iraqi
leadership, reflecting divisions among Iraqis
over how to restore an independent
government by July.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news -
web sites) announced the arrival of the
team, saying experts would begin "intensive
consultations" with Iraqi leaders and
members of the U.S.-led coalition and listen
to the views of all Iraqi constituencies.
"I hope the work of this team will help
resolve the impasse over the transitional
political process leading to the
establishment of a provisional government
for Iraq," Annan said in a statement issued
in New York.
Annan did not say how long the team, led
by Carina Perelli of Uruguay, would remain
in Iraq, but a senior Iraqi official, speaking
on condition of anonymity, said members
would be here about 10 days.
They were expected to travel to the holy
Shiite city of Najaf to meet Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, whose demand for
early elections threatens to torpedo U.S.
plans for transferring power to Iraqis by July
1.
The United States and the Iraqi Governing
Council sought Annan's help to overcome
objections by the Iranian-born cleric. The
Americans want members of the interim
legislature to be chosen by regional
caucuses. The legislature will in turn name
a government to take power from the U.S.-led coalition by July.
Al-Sistani demands that the legislature be elected in a direct vote. The
75-year-old cleric also has said he would accept the recommendations
of the U.N. experts.
However, many leading Sunni Muslims fear an election under U.S.
occupation would produce a government dominated by majority Shiites,
who were suppressed for generations by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.
Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, a Sunni Muslim who assumed the rotating
Governing Council presidency on Feb. 1, told reporters Saturday that
"we are not bound by the findings" of the U.N. delegation, echoing
remarks late last week by another prominent Sunni, Adnan Pachachi,
who held the presidency in January.
Abdel-Hamid, who heads the fundamentalist Iraqi Islamic Party, said the
Governing Council would be "guided" by the U.N. team's findings but he
final decision "rests with the council in consultation with the coalition."
When an Iraqi reporter expounded at length on al-Sistani's views about
early elections, Abdel-Hamid angrily interrupted him and snapped: "Are
you asking a question or giving us a lecture?"
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer, who appointed the council seven
months ago, can veto council decisions.
However, failure to resolve the impasse with al-Sistani would throw the
Bush administration's Iraq policies into disarray during an election year
and could stoke sectarian tensions in a country already ravaged by
terrorism and an insurgency.
As a sign of the tensions brewing here, Pachachi bristled last month
when asked if he would be carrying a message from al-Sistani to Annan
during a meeting in New York. "We are not the ayatollah's proxies," he
said.
U.S. officials insist that the American timetable for handing power to the
Iraqis by July 1 remains on track, and Abdel-Hamid said that regaining
sovereignty by that date was "very important to Iraqis."
Despite the two Sunnis' view, senior Shiite politician Abdel-Aziz
al-Hakim, a Governing Council member, told The Associated Press that
findings of the U.N. experts would be binding since they will work
together with Iraqi experts.
"Only if the Iraqi and the U.N. experts fail to reach a
consensus on the issue will the decision be left to
the Governing Council," said al-Hakim, an associate
of al-Sistani. Al-Hakim said delaying the July 1
deadline for a short period of time would be
acceptable.
U.S. officials have cited the precarious security
situation, the absence of accurate voter rolls and lack
of an updated election law in opposing an early
ballot.
However, the Americans cannot afford to alienate
al-Sistani, who commands enormous respect among
Iraq's Shiites, who compromise an estimated 60
percent of the population. Many Sunnis challenge
that figure.
Shiite leaders, however, say their demand for a
direct vote comes from their conviction that an
election is the best and most reliable way to reflect
the will of the Iraqi people.
In Cairo, Egypt, an Arab League report obtained
Saturday by the AP accuses the U.S.-led coalition in
Iraq of threatening the country as well as regional
stability by empowering Kurdish and Shiite Muslim
groups.
The report, drawn up by an Arab League delegation
that visited Iraq in December, reflects fears among
Arab countries that a post-Saddam Hussein (news -
web sites) government would give a large amount of
authority to Kurdish and Shiite Muslim groups, and
that those minority groups in neighboring countries
would be inspired to rise up and demand more
power.
The report does not name the country's Shiites but
uses the term "sectarianism" to refer to Shiite and
Kurdish political aspirations.
As a subsitute for voter rolls, Al-Sistani's aides have
suggested using data collected for a nationwide food
ration system introduced in the 1990s with the help
of the United Nations (news - web sites).
The political plan signed Nov. 15 by Bremer and the
council provides for three direct votes in 2005 - one
to choose delegates who will draft a permanent
constitution, another to ratify the document, a third
to elect a new parliament.
That plan replaced one abandoned in November
when al-Sistani objected to the drafting of a new
constitution for Iraq by unelected delegates. |
