Iraq Officials Seek Delay for Elections

[tuvor]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Leading Iraqi politicians called Friday for a six-month delay in the Jan. 30 election because of the spiraling violence as U.S. forces uncovered more bodies in the northern city of Mosul, apparent victims of an intimidation campaign by insurgents against Iraq (news - web sites)'s fledgling security forces.

Asked about their demand for the election to be postponed, President George W. Bush (news - web sites), at his vacation home in Texas, said, "The Iraqi Election Commission has scheduled elections in January, and I would hope they'd go forward in January."

But the country's deputy prime minister told an audience Friday in Wales that sticking to the election timetable would be difficult because of the security crisis.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=2&u=/ap/iraq

(Are you surprised?)

[Inland]

1. Am I surprised? No, although there was a suspenseful moment

where one didn't know if they would try to bluff their way through a halfassed, clearly inadequate process in January, or hold off.

[ogradda]

2. no! i'm not surprised!

not at all actually.

[karlrschneider]

3. Most of us here at DU have said for months, no way in January

:eyes:
I'll bet not even within a year...

[Obviousman]

4. Freaky thing just happened

I mis-read the headline and saw "Iraqi officials seek DeLay for elections" I thought why in the world would they want him?!

[Just Me]

5. GET OCCUPATION OUT,....GET FREEDOM BACK IN.

"Freedom" is such a manipulative term.

There are those who might say: "FUCK OFF you capitalistic, anti-democracy, anti-life, anti-compassion types who invest in MANIPULATING the maleable "capital" of human life to SERVE YOU.

If I were God,...I'd make all you "mongers" live in an isolation among yourselves,...expediting an acknowledgment of human worth,...maybe.

[Chipper Chat]

6. I misinterpreted this message title...

I thought it meant the Iraqis wanted Tom DeLay for gerrymandering expertise!

[Chipper Chat]

7. Sorry Obviousman..didn't see your post

You beat me to it! (GMTA?)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. They get it. Kerry got it.

But that idiot Bush still doesn't get it.

[Ima]

10. Anyone else remember

when * said their elections would be in June? We thought he mis spoke.

[Caledonia]

9. Question

Does anyone know who is standing for election?

Whoever, I wouldn't fancy standing in a voting queue the way things are going.

[sonicx]

11. Good, get Tom Delay out of this country....

Iraq is just right for him.

[Buns_of_Fire]

12. "I don't give a damn about that iceberg dead ahead,"

said Captain "Codpiece" boosh**. "This is the course God and I plotted and we're damned straight going to stick to it! Besides, I have a MAN-date from the passengers and they overwhelmingly LUUUUUUUUV me, so what could happen?"

The passengers on the upper decks LUUUUUUUUUV him, that is. Those of us down here in steerage aren't doo damned happy about it.

[maddezmom]

13. STORY UPDATED: Iraq Determined to Keep Election Date

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman said Saturday that the government is determined to hold the Jan. 30 elections on time despite calls by Sunni Muslim politicians to delay the balloting for six months because of deteriorating security.

About 17 Sunni Muslim politicians urged the government Friday for postpone the elections, in part to convince Sunni clerics to abandon their call for a boycott and to enable the authorities to secure polling stations.


However, the interim constitution and the U.N. Security Council have mandated a ballot by the end of January to meet demands by religious leaders of the majority Shiite community, which has been insisting on elections since the early months of the U.S. military presence.


"The Iraqi government is determined, as I told you before, to hold elections on time," Allawi's spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb told reporters. "The Iraqi government led by the prime minister is calling for all spectra of the Iraqi people to participate in the elections, and to contribute in the elections to build a strong democratic country."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=2&u=/ap/iraq

[maddezmom]

14. Iraqi PM's Party Joins Call for Election Delay

Seventeen political parties and movements called on Friday night for a delay of up to six months in the elections, saying violence was undermining preparations for a credible poll.


Allawi's Iraqi National Accord joined the original signatories on a list which includes the two main Kurdish parties and a party led by former presidential candidate Adnan Pachachi, an influential Sunni leader. "It is unthinkable that a large and important section of Iraqi society be left out of the political process," Pachachi told a news conference at his Baghdad home on Saturday.


"Security has to improve to enable people to vote without fear, with full security and without intimidation or pressure."


Sunni Arab parties and clerics have pushed for a delay in the wake of the U.S. offensive in the Sunni city of Falluja and a surge in violence across Sunni areas of Iraq (news - web sites). Some Sunni Arabs, feeling increasingly marginalised since the U.S.-led war toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), have threatened to boycott the vote.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041127/ts_nm/iraq_election_allawi_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

[maddezmom]

15. Reuters - Top Iraqi Shi'ite Party Insists on Timely Election

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the influential Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), told Reuters he would reject calls by leading Sunni Muslim and secular parties for elections to be postponed amid relentless violence.

~snip~

Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, would have the final say on any Shi'ite decision to agree to a postponement. Sistani supports an early poll and Hakim saw it as unlikely he could be persuaded to change his mind.


~snip~
Seventeen groups including the two main Kurdish parties, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord and a party led by U.S. ally Adnan Pachachi called on Friday for a delay of up to six months.


Sunni Arabs, who feel marginalised since the war that toppled fellow Sunni Saddam Hussein, have pushed for postponement, saying violence in Sunni-dominated areas after a U.S. offensive on Falluja has made a viable vote impossible.

~snip~
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20041127/wl_nm/iraq_election_sciri_dc

[maddezmom]

16. Electoral commission reject parties' demand to postpone Iraq polls

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s electoral commission ruled out postponing landmark elections planned for January 30, but a political crisis was still brewing as the parties who sought the delay could decide to boycott the poll.



"Postponing the elections is out of the question," Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi told reporters after convening his commission to examine a request that had been approved a day earlier by 17 organisations, including major parties.


"As far as we are concerned, the elections will be held at the date scheduled by the fundamental law," the commission chairman said. "In theory, the elections cannot be postponed, bar a political disaster."


"Unrest and terrorist acts as well as insufficient preparations at the administrative, technical and political levels necessitate the date be reconsidered," the parties, including that of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, had said in a statement Friday.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=1&u=/afp/20041127/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_vote_041127135908