Analysis: U.S. caucus idea dead in Iraq

[papau]

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040219-035728-8120r

Analysis: U.S. caucus idea dead in Iraq
By Roland Flamini Chief International Correspondent
Published 2/19/2004 4:49 PM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations has helped to scuttle a proposed U.S. political export (caucuses) to Iraq. Now the challenge is what to do instead.<SNIP>

Brahimi is likely to float other proposals for bridging the gap between the feasible and the acceptable until direct elections can be held in Iraq. Based on this week's visit to Iraq with U.N. election experts, Brahimi is believed to endorse the U.S. view that elections before the June 30 deadline are not possible. He has publicly stated that it would be a mistake to hold elections before they are properly prepared.

No voter register exists, for one thing, and a mechanism needs to be put in place to organize the election and count votes. It is understood that Brahimi will mention alternative options: postponement of the scheduled date of the U.S. handover, or building up the present Iraqi Provisional Council into an interim government. Brahimi, who played a leading role in Afghanistan's transition to a democratic system, is said to believe that the Afghan loya jirga, or grand council, could serve as a model for an Iraqi interim administration.<SNIP>


The Bush administration is also interested in exploring this idea, but not at the expense of the present timetable of disengagement. The U.S. chief administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said Thursday that Washington's target date of June 30 for the proposed transfer of power to the Iraqis remains unchanged. <SNIP>

Barnett Rubin, a leading American scholar on Afghanistan who helped draft the Bonn agreement on the Afghan transition to democracy, told Radio Free Europe Thursday that when it came to U.S. arguments against holding elections in Iraq, "Everything Bremer is saying applies equally to Afghanistan -- about the lack of security, the lack of voter rolls, lack of a census, lack of basic infrastructure for holding elections." <SNIP>