Iraq election may yet be postponed: Arab ministers

[maddezmom]

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - Violence and boycotts could yet stop promised Iraqi elections going ahead on time, Arab ministers said, despite Baghdad's confident assertion the landmark vote would be held on January 30.


Iraq (news - web sites) had somewhat upstaged a major international conference in Egypt on its future by announcing the date for the first post-Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) elections a day before the meeting opened.


But not everyone was impressed by its confidence.


Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, hosting the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh said the meeting would be deciding whether the vote could be held on time, adding that "the question needs to be re-examined".

The debates that will take place ... are very important because they will look at the question of the elections and decide on whether they can take place on the date envisaged or whether it needs more reflection.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041122/wl_afp/iraq_vote_conference&cid=1512&ncid=1480

[leftchick]

1. al-Sistani just might have something to say about this...

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2004/11/21/build/world/55-cleric-vote.inc

~snip~

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has launched a massive get-out-the-vote campaign for Iraq's upcoming elections, determined to ensure that Shiites have a chance to win the power that he believes rightfully belongs to the nation's majority Muslim sect.


Iraq's Election Commission announced Sunday that the poll to elect a transitional parliament will be held Jan. 30, although speculation has deepened that the vote will be postponed.

~snip~

"Sistani thinks that this is the Shiites' moment to reverse the last 80 years of being out of power -- some would say the last 1,400 years," said a senior Iraqi government official, who asked not to be identified.


Since the beginning of the U.S.-led occupation, al-Sistani has been a staunch proponent of early, direct elections, trying to straddle roles as an Iraqi nationalist leader and a promoter of Shiite political interests. He has met with Kurds -- most of whom are Sunnis -- and Christians as well as secular and religious Shiites.

[maddezmom]

2. US hopeful but warily eying Iraqi election date - AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Having embraced the Iraqi interim government's plans to hold the country's first post-Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) elections on January 30, the United States is watching warily as twin dangers threaten to derail the vote, a key element in its plan to democratize Iraq (news - web sites).


Determined to pronounce its invasion and occupation of Iraq a victory, Washington is placing heavy emphasis on the success of the nationwide parliamentary polls despite vows from insurgents to scuttle the process and deep skepticism from Iraq's Sunni minority.


"I noticed today that the elections are on schedule," Bush said at an Asia-Pacific forum in Chile shortly after the January 30 date was announced on Sunday. "What we're doing is the right thing in Iraq, and history will prove it right."


But many in the Bush administration harbor deep concerns about the viability of the elections unless the volatile security situation is eased to allow voter registration and campaigning to take place under international observation and the Sunnis can be convinced to participate.

~snip~
more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041122/wl_afp/iraq_vote_us&cid=1512&ncid=1480

* embracing his puppet gov'ts plan...how appropriate. :eyes:

[Demeter]

3. When Does The Comedy Skit End?

This joke about free and fair democratic elections in Iraq is getting old real fast.

[maddezmom]

4. agreed, 15 out of 18 provinces can hold elections today

but what they leave out is, the 3 provinces that are in utter chaos hold most of the majority of the Iraq population.

[leftchick]

7. that is not true.... 9 if they are lucky....

That was said by a Pentagon correspondent weeks ago after talking with commanders in Iraq. I dare say the situation is much worse now than when she reported it.

[maddezmom]

8. and it's the meme, cuz it was just repeated on CNN

sorry...thought it may have been accurate. :spank: .

[leftchick]

9. for shame mm!

you fell for that State Run Media swill?!? Back away from your TV NOW!

;)

[maddezmom]

10. alright, now straight out of the puppets mouth....not saying, just posting

:)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister said Monday he's confident only a small number of people will boycott the Jan. 30 elections despite anger among many Sunni Muslims over the Fallujah offensive and a deadly U.S.-Iraqi raid on a Baghdad mosque.

~snip~

Despite the violence, the Iraqi government Sunday set Jan. 30 as the date for parliamentary elections, the first since the collapse of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s dictatorship. Officials said the balloting would be held even in areas still plagued by insurgency and despite calls by militant Sunni clerics for a boycott.


However, Allawi, a secular Shiite hand-picked by the Americans last June, said he believed that only "a very small minority" would abstain during the election "for one reason or another."


"Their reason will be political, and not sectarian, and they will not be more than 5, 6 or 7 percent," Allawi said in his office in the U.S.-guarded Green Zone. "They are the eventual losers."

~snip~
more:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20041122/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Nicholas_J]

5. I found it interesting that the ministers

Felt that there should be representatives from the Iraqi insurgency present to decide what should happen in Iraq. They said that these people were not terrorists, or even insurgents, but Iraqi nationalists who oppose the occupation of their country.

[yellowcanine]

6. Is "Bagdad Bob" working for the Iraq "government"? The assertions

that the elections will take place Jan 30 sound kind of like his optimistic rants during the invasion.