Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, said on Tuesday he would send a team to Iraq to determine if elections could be held in the summer.
The US and Britain hope the mission will find a compromise between Washington’s idea of regional caucuses to choose an Iraqi government and the demands for direct elections from Iraq’s most respected Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
Annan said the mission would report on whether elections could be held by June 30, the date that power will be transferred to the Iraqis, and if not it would suggest an alternative.
The US-led administration in Baghdad, the coalition provisional authority (CPA), has said it is impractical to hold direct elections so soon, because there is no fair electoral roll, voter registration or constituency boundaries.
Instead it has proposed a system of selection and indirect elections.
But Ayatollah Sistani has led opposition to the plan, calling instead for direct elections to choose a government.
Annan has written to Ayatollah Sistani telling him he believes it would not be possible to hold elections by the summer. The cleric has indicated he may accept a compromise as long as it has the sanction of the UN.
”Consensus amongst all Iraqi constituencies would be the best guarantee of a legitimate and credible transitional governance arrangement for Iraq,” Mr Annan said yesterday in Paris.
UN officials say privately there are few practical obstacles to early elections, rather the problem is the unstable political situation.
”On the technical side, the issues are; can you create an electoral roll, and is there a controlled environment,” one UN official told The Guardian. ”This is a country with decades of central controls which would make [creating an electoral roll] easier than it might appear.”
What worries the UN is in the current environment with virtually no party identification among the population, a rushed election could be hijacked. ”Early polls become very volatile, you don’t necessarily get a very democratic outcome,” the official said.
It is expected that the UN team will take two to three weeks to produce its report.
Annan also said the visit was dependent on the CPA guaranteeing the security of his staff.
This will be the first time UN diplomats have returned to Baghdad since the bombing of their headquarters in the city in August, in which 22 people were killed, including the UN’s special envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Yesterday, three American soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were killed in a bomb blast in Khaldiya, 80km west of Baghdad. Another soldier was injured in the explosion, which appeared to have been caused by a large roadside bomb.
Until now Washington has excluded the UN from the political process in Iraq. In the political framework for Iraq, agreed between the CPA and the Iraqi governing council in November, the UN is not even mentioned. That was despite the fact that the previous month the UN security council agreed to strengthen the the role of the governing council in working towards a representative Iraqi government, under resolution 1511.
The UN may also be encouraged to play a military role. In the months before the US hands over power to the Iraqis it must agree with the Iraqi governing council what role the US military will play in future. There is considerable opposition to the US military occupation across the country and American commanders may find it hard to strike an agreement with a future Iraqi government. Officials in the CPA have considered a compromise in which US forces would continue to lead military operations but as part of a UN peacekeeping force.
Yesterday, after talks with the French president, Jacques Chirac, Annan said a UN peacekeeping force was not planned but the security council may approve a broader, multinational force in Iraq for the first time.
”I don’t think for the moment that the question of sending blue helmets has been raised,” he said.
”One could foresee a multinational force authorised by the security council.”
Two CNN employees were killed and another slightly wounded in an ambush in Iraq, the international news organisation said on Tuesday.
Duraid Isa Mohammed, a translator and producer, and Yasser Khatab, a driver, were shot dead as they were returning to Baghdad in a two-car convoy, CNN said.
Scott McWhinnie, a CNN cameraman was grazed in the head by a bullet.
”Two of our colleagues were killed in an ambush on the outskirts of Baghdad,” a CNN anchor said on air.
”They were returning to Baghdad in a two-car convoy from an assignment in the south when assailants opened fire. No one else was hurt.” – Guardian Unlimited Â