JEDDAH/BAGHDAD, 1 November 2004 — Iraq’s first electoral list will be posted today as the key step toward compiling a register of voters ahead of the country’s first free elections scheduled for January.
The list took more than eight months to establish and includes the names and addresses of over 12 million potential voters. Citizens would now be able to check whether their names appear on the list with the correct addresses. Those who do not find their names on the list would be able to apply for inclusion through the Independent Election Commission of Iraq (IECI).
The IECI is an independent all-Iraqi body representing the country’s different ethnic, religious and linguistic communities. It is independent of the interim government and would have overall control of the entire electoral process, from the approval of candidates to the official declaration of results.
A special United Nations team, headed by Colombian diplomat Carlos Valenzuela has been working with the IECI to establish the list. Establishing the list was not easy as Iraq had never held any free elections. Eventually the list was worked out with reference to the names and addresses used for the UN-sponsored oil-for-food program. Many analysts, however, believe that the list is incomplete.
One reason is that some Iraqis, especially in the tribal areas of the southeast, did not register for the oil-for-food handouts. Another reason is that some 1.5 million Iraqis who had been refugees, mostly in neighboring countries especially Iran and Turkey, have returned home since liberation but have not been registered anywhere.
The final list, expected to be ready in December, is likely to contain the names of some 14 million potential voters for a total population of 25 million.
The UN and the IECI have vowed to complete the voters’ register within the next two months. Over 400 officers of the IECI are touring the country to register voters who might have been excluded from the list.
“We are confident that the proper register will be in place in time for the election,” says Edward Mortimer, the UN communications director. The January election is seen as a major step in Iraq’s path to democratic rule. The US-led coalition, which formally ended its occupation of Iraq in June but still wields vast influence, sees the vote as a key step toward establishing a stable government.
Iraqis will select a 275-seat assembly whose main task will be to debate and finalize a draft constitution. If adopted, the document will be the foundation for a referendum to be held by Dec. 15, 2005.
Because the UN is organizing the elections it cannot also monitor it. But talks are under way to bring in observers from a number of other international bodies including the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and NGOs such as the Endowment for Democracy and the Carter Center.
Many parliaments, including the US Congress and the British House of Commons, will also send observers.
Carlos Valenzuela, the UN official coordinating with the IECI, said every effort would be made to ensure broad international observation of the entire process.
“International observation is important only in that it’s symbolic,” Valenzuela says. “I don’t think that the process will be less credible without observers, absolutely not. They are not the essence. They are not essential. They are not important. If they can come, fine, of course.”
He said of the 35 UN international staffers in Iraq, 10 were electoral experts. He said 15 more experts were being recruited and were expected to arrive in Iraq at the beginning of January. But he warned against judging the UN electoral role on numbers alone.
“It’s completely ridiculous to say that the work of the United Nations depends on the number of UN electoral officers because the UN was never supposed to do the work the Iraqis are doing and were always meant to do,” he said. “People, probably naively, expected that hundreds of UN staff would be all over the place. That was never the mandate.”
Already, he explained, about 15 UN electoral officers were based in Amman, in neighboring Jordan, and that four experts from the International Foundation for Election Systems, a Washington-based organization, were working in Baghdad.
Valenzuela said the electoral commission already had hired 400 electoral officers, of whom more than 300 were stationed outside Baghdad. Close to 6,000 Iraqis were undergoing training to be clerks at 548 voter registration centers across Iraq. Registration begins today.
He said the commission has already issued detailed instructions for registering political parties and individuals wishing to run.
“It’s a very tight timeline. Things could go wrong. Everyone knew that it was going to be a race against time. But, so far, everything is on track,” he said
Nevertheless, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari complained last week that the United Nations was not providing adequate support to the election process.
“It is unfortunate that the contribution and participation of UN employees in this process is not up to expectations,” he said.
The UN has estimated that some 10,000 troops will be needed to protect polling stations against terrorist attacks. So far, however, only 13 have been offered from Fiji. Diplomatic efforts to bring in troops from a number of Arab and other Muslim countries, including Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, are still under way.
The US-led coalition and the interim Iraqi government, however, have said that if the UN fails to set up a separate force to protect the electoral process, they would provide all the troops needed.
“We welcome troops from other countries outside the US-led coalition,” says Hazem Shaalan, Iraq’s defense minister. “But if nobody comes we have enough Iraqi troops to do the job. What is vital is that we must have elections on the specified dates.”
