Iraqis Split on U.N. Decision Against Early Elections
By LEE KEATH, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Feb. 20) - Iraqi politicians gave mixed reviews Friday to a U.N. recommendation against early elections but said they would await details before deciding how to form a new government to take power from the U.S.-led coalition after June 30.
Iraq's top Shiite leader, who challenged the American plan for the handover by calling for a direct vote, reportedly said he would accept only a short delay in elections and argued that any non-elected administration must have strictly limited powers.
Asked in an interview with German newsmagazine Der Spiegel how long a delay he would accept, al-Sistani replied that ''it must not take long.'' He did not elaborate. Der Spiegel said al-Sistani replied to written questions, but did not specify when. The comments were published Friday.
Several hundred Shiites demonstrated Friday in al-Sistani's hometown of Najaf in support of his call for quick polls.
''Yes to al-Sistani, yes to elections,'' the protesters shouted.
However, an official of a major Shiite party - the Supreme Council for the Islamic Republic in Iraq - spoke out against any delay. The party is close to al-Sistani.
''Delaying elections is not acceptable,'' Imam Kadhim al Salehy said. ''It's possible to prepare the proper conditions for elections now if the Iraqi people can provide security.''
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday backed Washington's claims that a direct vote before June 30 is impossible. He did not offer alternatives to help resolve the debate on how to transfer sovereignty among Americans, Iraq's Governing Council and powerful Shiite Muslim clerics.
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer insisted Thursday that the handover will take place by June 30. The favored U.S. option is to expand the existing 25-member Iraqi Governing Council.
''There are 133 days before sovereignty returns to an Iraqi government on June 30th,'' Bremer said. ''Changes in the mechanism performing an interim government are possible, but the date holds.''
Al Salehy, from the Shiite party, said his group was willing to expand the Governing Council only if ''the expansion is limited to a small number, no more than you can count on one hand.''
Governing Council spokesman Hameed al-Kafaei said the group had not yet discussed proposals for the size of any future, expanded council. ''There are many ideas before the council now,'' he said. ''The different mechanisms are still being studied.''
The Iraqi National Congress, whose Shiite Muslim leader Ahmad Chalabi is on the Governing Council, said Friday that elections were still possible before June 30 and dismissed Annan's finding as a nonbinding opinion.
''We also said before the U.N. delegation came to Baghdad that we are not obligated to their opinion. This is after all an Iraqi issue and we must solve it ourselves and we will take them as adviser,'' INC spokesman Entifadh Qanbar told The Associated Press.
Hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also dismissed Annan's recommendation.
''We think that elections can be held before the end of June, and we reject the postponement idea,'' he said through a representative.
In the al-Sadr stronghold of Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, a mosque preacher told his congregation during Friday's prayer service that Iraqis insist on elections.
''If the United Nations announced that the elections are impossible, we are still demanding the elections and we shall insist on holding them,'' the preacher, Nasr al-Saedi, said. ''The occupiers should know that Iraqis are not weaker than the Vietnamese and when we decide to free our country of them, we shall do it.''
However, others on the Governing Council appeared to accept Annan's finding and said they would discuss alternatives after receiving a formal report.
''Elections are a must, but it is impossible right now,'' said Nasser al-Chadechi, a Sunni Arab. ''Now, we have many options to look at with the United Nations and the Iraqi people.''
Mahmoud Othman, a Sunni Kurd, said Annan's decision was ''realistic and expected.''
While Annan did not give any recommendations on how to pick a provisional government, he said the United Nations will work with the Iraqis to choose a way that has the broadest possible support.
Opposition from Al-Sistani, the country's most prominent Shiite cleric, derailed a U.S. plan to choose the legislators in regional caucuses, which many Shiites feared would allow the Americans to manipulate the process. Most Governing Council members no longer back the caucus formula.
It was the second time that the elderly, Iranian-born al-Sistani has forced the Americans to revise their power transfer plans. Last June, al-Sistani issued a fatwa, or edict, saying the constitution must be drafted by delegates chosen in an election, a process the Americans feared would take too long.
Faced with al-Sistani's edict, the Governing Council could not decide how to proceed with drafting a new constitution, a key stage of a seven-step process envisaged by Washington to conclude with an elected government by the end of 2004.
With the process deadlocked and the Bush administration under pressure to reduce U.S. casualties in the face of a widening insurgency, the Americans scrapped the seven-point plan in November, advancing sovereignty to June 30 but postponing the first elections until next year. That, too, displeased al-Sistani.
Shiites are believed to form about 60 percent of the country's 25 million people; their acceptance of a formula is critical if the new Iraqi government hopes to win legitimacy among the population.
02/20/04 09:52 EST
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. |
