[lbo-talk] Sistani insists on elections

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Dec 27 20:17:26 PST 2003


[Unless someone can show him something that would "guarantee a better representation of the Iraqi people."]

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/383084.cms

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2003

AFP

Iraq's Shiite leader in talks with governing council on polls

NAJAF, Iraq : A six-member delegation from the US-installed Iraqi

Governing Council held talks on Thursday with Iraq 's most prominent

Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, on "new ideas" concerning

the organisation of general elections in the country.

"New ideas were mooted," council member Mohammed Bahr al-Olum said,

without elaborating.

Sistani for his part insisted on the "election of provisional national

assembly," spokesman Hamad al-Khafaf said.

Sistani has criticised the US-led coalition's schedule for its plan to

create a provisional Iraqi government through a series of formal

regional caucuses, rather than by holding general elections.

"Despite obstacles that have been raised, he would only renounce

elections if a UN technical team reaches the conclusion that it is

impossible to hold them and proposes another solution that would

guarantee a better representation of the Iraqi people," Sistani's

spokesman said.

Another council member Muaffaq al-Rubai said, "talks are continuing to

reach the best way of representing the Iraqi people."

The governing council signed a November 15 agreement with the US-led

coalition to transfer sovereignty to a transitional national assembly

by May 31, 2004.

General elections would not take place until March 2005, a date

Sistani has rejected as far too late.

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