Iraq vote to be held in ten weeks

Iraqi election officials announced on Sunday that the first democratic elections in decades would be held in less than 10 weeks, despite the relentless violence of the insurgency.

The decision, taken by the independent electoral commission of Iraq, reflects a determination in Washington and London to press ahead with the political process, however fragile, in the hope it will eventually resolve the security crisis.

”Of course there is a difficult security situation,” said Adil al-Lami, chief electoral officer at the commission.

”But we took a decision that the date will be January 30 and there will be no change to that, I hope.”

Although the Shia political parties, which are certain to dominate the new government, are pushing hard for the vote to go ahead on time, there have been public acknowledgments from senior figures in the Iraqi government that violence may yet force a delay. In the end the decision will rest with Ayad Allawi, the US-appointed prime minister.

The announcement coincided with a decision on Sunday by the Paris Club of creditor nations to cancel 80% of the debt it is owed by Iraq. The agreement, worth about $33-billion, may encourage other creditors to negotiate away Iraq’s foreign debt.

In the election, Iraqis will choose candidates for a 275-seat national assembly as well as 18 provincial councils and, in the north, the Kurdish regional assembly.

Already 198 political parties and individuals have put themselves forward for the national assembly and 162 have been approved. Iraq will be regarded as a single constituency, which will mean that even if violence mars voting in some towns in the troubled Sunni regions, the overall vote can go ahead.

The commission is forecasting a turnout of 7-million to 8-million, out of 14-million eligible voters.

Although Saddam Hussein had tightly controlled elections for a national council in the 1980s, there have not been free elections in Iraq since the monarchy. In his later years, Saddam preferred a simple, if farcical, referendum. In October 2002, his regime declared a 100% turnout and a 100% yes vote for the president.

Violent clashes across the country on Sunday continued to cast a shadow over the planned elections.

General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the army, said that British troops might be sent to conflict zones anywhere inside Iraq. Jackson said that until the recent ”one-off” redeployment of the Black Watch, all British operations had been in the Basra region. ”That is not to say, in the future, there may not be a military requirement of the coalition as a whole for a British unit or units to be elsewhere.”

In the northern city of Mosul, the bodies of at least 12 Iraqi policemen and soldiers were found dumped in the street in the past two days. All had been shot in the back of the head.

There were clashes in Adhamiya, a northern Sunni suburb of Baghdad, on Saturday when gunmen attacked a United States patrol and fired on a police station. At least one US soldier and three Iraqi policemen were killed.

In Ramadi, west of Fallujah, the police chief said seven people were killed when American soldiers opened fired on a civilian bus. The US military said the vehicle had failed to stop at a checkpoint

South of Baghdad, in the predominantly Shia city of Hilla, the police chief survived an assassination attempt when a suicide car bomber tried to ram his convoy. The bomber detonated his car before hitting the police vehicle.

The US army announced it had found about 20 ”atrocity sites” used by insurgents to imprison, torture and kill hostages in Fallujah. Major Jim West of the marines said troops found rooms containing knives and black hoods. Troops discovered signs of ”torture, murder, very gruesome sights”.

Violence has spread from the troubled Sunni regions into areas south of Baghdad. An Iraqi reporter working for Reuters described on Sunday how he watched as insurgents set up a checkpoint near Latifiya, south of the capital. The gunmen stopped the car just in front of the reporter and hauled out three men dressed in civilian clothes. In the boot of the car they found their police and National Guard uniforms.

”Take them over there and kill them,” said the lead gunman. The men’s hands were tied behind their backs, they were lined up by the side of the road and shot in the chest while the engine of their car was still running.