Annan rules out June election in Iraq

BAGHDAD – UN chief Kofi Annan yesterday ruled out elections in Iraq before US forces hand over control on June 30, a move that may anger the country’s Shi’ite majority as the power debate heats up.

But Shi’ite politicians were not rushing to judgement on Annan’s prognosis, while tensions on the ground are already high following a wave of violence this month that left more than 200 Iraqis dead. In the latest unrest, insurgents hammered Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad with 33 mortar bombs and five rockets before US soldiers killed one assailant and detained 55.”There seems to be general acceptance of the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election between now and the end of June,” Annan told yesterday’s edition of Japan’s biggest-selling daily, the Yomiuri Shimbun.Elections had to be properly organised and the conditions had to be right with security, and the political and legal instruments ready for the elections, the United Nations secretary general said.”So I think the conclusion then will have to be that elections before the end of June may not be possible, but there will have to be better organised elections later on,” Annan said at UN headquarters in New York.Annan was due to meet later in the day with his special advisor Lakhdar Brahimi, who led a one-week fact-finding mission to Iraq and has already poured cold water on the Shi’ites’ hopes of elections before June 30, when the US occupation is officially dissolved.The country’s leading Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has led the call for direct elections and protested against the US-led coalition transferring power to unelected officials.UN political experts have warned that early elections could favour the more extreme elements in Iraq amid a growing row over the role of Islam in the nation’s immediate political future.”We are still waiting for the findings of Brahimi and the final decisions of Annan, Brahimi and the United Nations,” said Haytham al-Husseini, a top official with the main Shi’ite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).”The UN report will put an end to all the concerns”.An Iraqi source familiar with the talks between the US-led coalition, UN and the Governing Council said the main alternatives to national elections are partial polls in the north and south or transferring power to an enlarged Governing Council.US civil administrator Paul Bremer for his part brought protests from the Shi’ites, who comprise about 60 per cent of the population, after he warned on Monday he would veto the fundamental law being drawn up if it is based only on Islam.Shi’ite leaders retorted that the Americans could not dictate such terms to the Iraqi people.A Bremer spokesman sought to calm the situation, saying the US overseer recognised Islam as the state religion and was not opposed to it as one source for the fundamental law.- Nampa-AFPIn the latest unrest, insurgents hammered Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad with 33 mortar bombs and five rockets before US soldiers killed one assailant and detained 55. “There seems to be general acceptance of the fact that it is not going to be possible to arrange an election between now and the end of June,” Annan told yesterday’s edition of Japan’s biggest-selling daily, the Yomiuri Shimbun. Elections had to be properly organised and the conditions had to be right with security, and the political and legal instruments ready for the elections, the United Nations secretary general said. “So I think the conclusion then will have to be that elections before the end of June may not be possible, but there will have to be better organised elections later on,” Annan said at UN headquarters in New York. Annan was due to meet later in the day with his special advisor Lakhdar Brahimi, who led a one-week fact-finding mission to Iraq and has already poured cold water on the Shi’ites’ hopes of elections before June 30, when the US occupation is officially dissolved. The country’s leading Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has led the call for direct elections and protested against the US-led coalition transferring power to unelected officials. UN political experts have warned that early elections could favour the more extreme elements in Iraq amid a growing row over the role of Islam in the nation’s immediate political future. “We are still waiting for the findings of Brahimi and the final decisions of Annan, Brahimi and the United Nations,” said Haytham al-Husseini, a top official with the main Shi’ite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). “The UN report will put an end to all the concerns”. An Iraqi source familiar with the talks between the US-led coalition, UN and the Governing Council said the main alternatives to national elections are partial polls in the north and south or transferring power to an enlarged Governing Council. US civil administrator Paul Bremer for his part brought protests from the Shi’ites, who comprise about 60 per cent of the population, after he warned on Monday he would veto the fundamental law being drawn up if it is based only on Islam. Shi’ite leaders retorted that the Americans could not dictate such terms to the Iraqi people. A Bremer spokesman sought to calm the situation, saying the US overseer recognised Islam as the state religion and was not opposed to it as one source for the fundamental law. – Nampa-AFP