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Int'l team to review Iraq vote results
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-30 08:40
An international team agreed Thursday to review Iraq's parliamentary
elections, a decision lauded by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups who have
staged repeated protests around Iraq complaining of widespread fraud and
intimidation.
Meanwhile, gunmen killed 12 members of an extended Shiite family near
Latifiyah, a Sunni Arab-dominated town about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Police
said the men were taken from their homes, packed into a minivan and shot.
The decision by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections to send a team
of assessors should help placate opposition complaints of ballot box rigging and
mollify those groups who felt their views were not being heard, especially among
hardline Sunni Arab parties.
"It is important that the Iraqi people have confidence in the election
results and that the voting process, including the process for vote counting, is
free and fair,' U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.
He added that "these experts will be arriving immediately and we are ready to
assist them, if needed."
The team was coming despite a U.N. observer's endorsement of the Dec. 15
vote, which gave the Shiite religious bloc a big lead in preliminary returns.
The observer, Craig Jenness, said Wednesday that his team åK½ï¿½ which helped the
Iraqi election commission organize and oversee the poll åK½ï¿½ found the elections to
be credible and transparent.
Sunni Arabs and secular Shiites rejected Jenness' findings, saying their
concerns åK½ï¿½ which included political assassinations before the elections åK½ï¿½ were
not addressed.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Iraq's Kurd
president, right, holds talks at his Lake Dokan retreat in the Kurdish
north with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, left, the cleric who heads the United
Iraqi Alliance, near Suleymania, Thursday Dec. 29,
2005.[AP] | There have been about 1,500 complaints lodged against the elections,
including about 50 serious enough to alter the results in some districts. The
overall result, however, was not expected to change.
On Thursday, the United Nations said it had encouraged Iraq's electoral
commission to get more outside observers involved in the process, and
Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the participation of the International
Mission for Iraqi Elections, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
"It is critical that those Iraqi groups who have complained about the conduct
of the election are given a hearing," Dujarric said in a statement. "This team
of assessors, which was not involved in the conduct of the elections, offers an
independent evaluation of these complaints."
The Iraqi Accordance Front, which is the country's leading Sunni Arab group,
applauded the decision, as did the secular Iraqi National List headed by former
Shiite Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
"We are optimistic with this international response and hope that it will
find a solution for this crisis," Accordance spokesman Thafir al-Ani told The
Associated Press.
It was unclear if the review would further delay final results, now expected
in early January.
A serious crisis involving the elections could set back hopes for a
broad-based government that would include minority Sunni Arabs as well as
secular Shiites. Such a government could have the legitimacy necessary to
diminish the insurgency åK½ï¿½ a key part of any U.S. military exit strategy from
Iraq.
The presence of two Arab experts on the International Mission for Iraqi
Elections team could go far in helping to convince Iraqis that the review of the
vote will be fair. The team will also consist of a Canadian and a European.
The independent group said it helped monitor the elections in Baghdad and was
"assisted by monitors from countries of the European Union working under IMIE's
umbrella."
The team will travel to Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi election
commission åK½ï¿½ a pointed noted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"The Electoral Commission has once again demonstrated its commitment to fair
and credible elections that meet international standards," Rice said in a
statement welcoming the invitation to the independent team.
An official for the commission, Safwat Rashid, said a review could "evaluate
what happened during the elections and what's going on now. We are highly
confident that we did our job properly and we have nothing to hide."
Preliminary results from the vote have given the governing Shiite religious
bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, a big lead åK½ï¿½ but one which still would require
forming a coalition with other groups.
In northern Iraq, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, was holding talks with
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the cleric who heads the United Iraqi Alliance, and other
members of that religious group about forming a coalition government.
There were no Sunni Arabs or secular Shiites at the meeting. They said they
were waiting for the results of the investigation into their complaints.
"Whenever the results of the investigation come to the surface, then the time
will be suitable to talk about forming the new government," Allawi told
Al-Arabiya television.
In other developments:
- In Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed a police officer, gunmen
assassinated an Iraqi driver working with a French company, and a drive-by
shooting killed a university student.
- Al-Qaida in Iraq threatened to kill five kidnapped employees of the
Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad in two days unless Sudan removes its diplomatic
mission from Iraq. The claim could not be immediately confirmed.
- Gunmen kidnapped a Lebanese engineer in Iraq, the Lebanese Foreign
Ministry said. The ministry's statement gave no other details on the
disappearance of Camile Nassif Tannous, who works for the Schneider engineering
firm.
- Iraq's largest oil refinery has suspended operations since Dec. 24
after insurgents threatened to kill drivers and blow up trucks that distribute
its oil products across Iraq, said Assem Jihad, a spokesman for the oil
ministry.
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