Iraq rejects U.S. offer to
fix election
The Daily Star
Iraq rejects U.S. talk of adjusting vote result
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Monday, December 27, 2004
Iraq's election body rejected a suggestion in Washington that
it adjust the results of next month's vote to benefit the Sunni
minority if low turnout in Sunni areas means Shiites win an
exaggerated majority in the new assembly.
In another development, Iraq's foreign minister asked the
United Nations to take the upcoming elections more seriously,
calling on the world organization to "redouble its efforts."
In reaction to a U.S. bid to stem strong Sunni opposition to
the elections, Iraq's Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayyar
described the request as "unacceptable" interference, saying:
"Who wins, wins. That is the way it is. That is the way it will
be in the election."
U.S. diplomats in Baghdad, at pains to keep their role in the
election discreet, declined comment on a New York Times report
from Washington which said Sunnis might be granted extra seats if
the community's vote was judged to have been too low.
U.S. officials have expressed concern that if the ballot on
Jan. 30 fails to reflect Iraq's sectarian and ethnic mix due to
violence and boycotts in Sunni areas, then the assembly will lack
legitimacy.
But any attempt to fix the proportion of seats going to the
main groups in advance could have the same effect.
"The Americans are expressing their views and those aren't
always the same as the Commission's," Ayyar told Reuters.
"But the Commission is absolutely independent. It is not
acceptable for anyone to interfere in our business."
Citing an unnamed Western diplomat, The New York Times said
U.S. officials had already raised the issue with an aide to Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, the
possibility of adding some top Sunni vote-getters to the
legislature.
The long-oppressed Shiites, 60 percent of the population, are
expected to overturn decades of Sunni-dominated rule in the
January vote.
While some in neighboring countries have expressed concerns
that a Shiite alliance might win the elections, Iraq's Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Sunday the planned assembly was
designed so no one group can govern by itself. "It's not winners
take all." He also called on Iraq's neighbors do more to stop
militants from crossing into his country and to stop the "media
agitation" for efforts to destabilize Iraq.
"They should let the people of Iraq decide and determine their
own future by themselves," he added.
He also called on the UN to do more to support the elections.
"We hope that the UN really will redouble its efforts to take
this event far more seriously than it has done so far," Zebari
said in an interview at Iraq's embassy in Beijing.
"The UN has a leading role, not only an advisory role in
support of the election," he said. "We are not satisfied with the
level of the UN engagement." He said more UN staff and election
monitors are needed.
Iraqis are to vote for a 275-member national assembly that
would draft a Constitution to replace the country's current
interim law passed by the now defunct U.S.-led occupation
authority, ahead of fresh elections.
The head of the influential Committee of Muslim Scholars said
his fellow Sunnis had nothing to lose by acting on threats to
boycott the elections.
"Iraq's Sunnis would lose nothing by not taking part in the
drafting of the country's constitution," said Sheikh Hareth
al-Dhari late Saturday. "Once liberated the people have the right
to reassess a Constitution that came into being in the shadow of
occupation."
Both US President George W. Bush and Iraq's interim Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi are adamant about holding the elections on
time.
But it appears that Washington has not given up on trying to
convince figures like Dhari to moderate their opposition to the
elections.
Dhari said he was visited Saturday by Adnan Pachachi, a senior
secular Sunni politician with close ties to the White House, and
other leaders, whom he refused to identify.
"They stressed the importance of taking part in the elections
as a way of ultimately ending the presence of U.S. troops," he
said.
"I told them that if a timetable is worked out for the end of
the occupation and if this was guaranteed by the international
community then we would ask those who have allied themselves to
us in boycotting the elections to take part," he added. The
committee along with 70 other political, religious and civic
organizations signed a manifesto in mid-November to officially
boycott the elections. - Agencies
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