BAGHDAD, 18 November 2004 — The leading Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Muhammad Sistani, has appointed a coordinating committee to ensure the safety, freedom and fairness of general elections, sources close to the Najaf seminary confirmed yesterday.

With less than three months left to voting day on Jan. 27, 2005, the independent Iraqi election committee has registered around 65 percent of potential voters. A further 15 percent will be registered in 14 countries where Iraqis living abroad will be able to vote under an agreement signed with the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday. The remaining 15 percent to be registered are mostly inhabitants of the so-called Sunni triangle that has witnessed weeks of insurgency.

The insurgents have killed voter registration officials in several cities in the triangle, including Fallujah, Ramadi, Haditha and Baqubah. The interim Iraqi government, backed by the US-led coalition forces, however, hopes to restore enough calm to those cities to allow would-be voters to register.

One formula under study is to extend the deadline for registration in the towns affected by the insurgency. Another is to allow displaced people from the Sunni triangle to vote either in camps or in the nearest town or city rather than their original place of abode.

The interim government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, however, may be forced to postpone elections in at least parts of the Sunni triangle where election supervision officers have either been killed or forced to resign under the threat of assassination by the militants. Such a move, affecting between eight and 10 percent of the electorate, may undermine the authority of the Constituent Assembly that is to be elected in January to write a new constitution. The coordination committee, appointed by Sistani, will have four functions.

The first is to persuade the various Shiite parties to present a unified list of candidates so as to win the maximum number of seats in the forthcoming assembly. Shiites account for some 60 percent of Iraq’s population but are politically divided into 18 parties, ranging from Communist to Islamists. Some of the Shiite parties are engaged in negotiations with Kurds, representing some 20 percent of the population, to establish a unified candidates’ list. Sistani’s hope is that the various Shiite parties and groups do not field more than three separate lists.

The second task of the coordinating committee is to recruit people from all walks of life to supervise the election and make sure that no fraudulent practices are allowed. The Najaf seminary hopes to enlist between 50,000 and 60,000 people as election observers to work in cooperation with United Nations officials, the independent Iraqi election commission, and more than two dozen international organizations invited to observe the election.

Thirdly, the coordination committee is engaged in negotiations with the election commission to establish a list of poling stations. The Najaf seminary believes that polling stations should be located in mosques and shrines wherever possible. This, they hope, would make it harder for the insurgents to try to disrupt the process by attacking polling stations with car bombs or suicide operations. A poll conducted by Oxford University last month shows that 87 percent of the Iraqis welcome the election and 69 percent plan to vote in it. But fear of insurgent attacks during the election could keep many people at home on polling day.

Finally, the coordinating committee is responsible for mobilizing people’s power to protect the voters and the candidates during the election. Volunteers to protect the election are already registering in Baghdad and the mainly Shiite cities of the center and the south of the country. The armed units of various political movements, including the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Da’awah (Call) party, could join them.