19.11.2004, 21:27
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1354586,00.html">http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0, ... 86,00.html</a><!-- m -->
[quote]The January deadline for Iraq's first post-Saddam elections looked increasingly in doubt yesterday after a senior aide to the interim prime minister predicted a delay.
Leading Sunni Muslim politicians also called for a postponement until there was an improvement in the dire security situation in the country's Sunni Arab heartlands.
"I don't think within the time available we can do everything, so I think a delay or postponing elections is more likely than holding them on time," said Ibrahim Janabi, a senior aide to Ayad Allawi.
Mohsen Abdul Hamid, the head of the mainstream Sunni Muslim Iraqi Islamic party, said: "I am with the delay. The security situation does not make it possible for the Sunni Arabs to vote. The Sunnis will boycott the elections if the security situation continues as it is now."
The comments came as senior Iraqi politicians convened at the lakeside resort of Dukan, in the Kurdistan region, for two days of crisis talks on how to move towards the country's first free elections in decades.
They came up with a five-point plan designed to chart a path to elections. In particular, they called for an extension to drawing up the electoral register and for a pan-Iraqi list to be created for the ballot. ........
But, in a sign of the deep fissures that have opened up over the timing, leading Shia figures present insisted that the January 31 deadline be met.
"The worst we can imagine is that the elections are cancelled in the areas that have a majority Sunni population," said Sa'ad Jawad Qandil, a top official in the SCIRI.
"This is not a good reason to cancel the whole election," Mr Chalabi, the leader of the INC and a secular Shia politician, said. "Who says security will improve if the elections are postponed?"
But Hachim al-Hassani, who was expelled from the Iraqi Islamic Party last week when he refused orders to quit his post as minister of industry, warned that if elections were held and Sunni Arabs excluded from voting, it "would be preparing the ground for something like civil war". Mr Hassani said he was representing the Iraqi president, with whom he is forming a new political party.[quote]verlegung der wahlen aufgrund der sicherheitslage immer wahrscheinlicher , trotz druckes einiger schiitischer politiker
[quote]The January deadline for Iraq's first post-Saddam elections looked increasingly in doubt yesterday after a senior aide to the interim prime minister predicted a delay.
Leading Sunni Muslim politicians also called for a postponement until there was an improvement in the dire security situation in the country's Sunni Arab heartlands.
"I don't think within the time available we can do everything, so I think a delay or postponing elections is more likely than holding them on time," said Ibrahim Janabi, a senior aide to Ayad Allawi.
Mohsen Abdul Hamid, the head of the mainstream Sunni Muslim Iraqi Islamic party, said: "I am with the delay. The security situation does not make it possible for the Sunni Arabs to vote. The Sunnis will boycott the elections if the security situation continues as it is now."
The comments came as senior Iraqi politicians convened at the lakeside resort of Dukan, in the Kurdistan region, for two days of crisis talks on how to move towards the country's first free elections in decades.
They came up with a five-point plan designed to chart a path to elections. In particular, they called for an extension to drawing up the electoral register and for a pan-Iraqi list to be created for the ballot. ........
But, in a sign of the deep fissures that have opened up over the timing, leading Shia figures present insisted that the January 31 deadline be met.
"The worst we can imagine is that the elections are cancelled in the areas that have a majority Sunni population," said Sa'ad Jawad Qandil, a top official in the SCIRI.
"This is not a good reason to cancel the whole election," Mr Chalabi, the leader of the INC and a secular Shia politician, said. "Who says security will improve if the elections are postponed?"
But Hachim al-Hassani, who was expelled from the Iraqi Islamic Party last week when he refused orders to quit his post as minister of industry, warned that if elections were held and Sunni Arabs excluded from voting, it "would be preparing the ground for something like civil war". Mr Hassani said he was representing the Iraqi president, with whom he is forming a new political party.[quote]verlegung der wahlen aufgrund der sicherheitslage immer wahrscheinlicher , trotz druckes einiger schiitischer politiker