UN officials have virtually ruled out elections in Iraq before a transfer of power on June 30 but might be able to schedule them before the end of the year, diplomats said yesterday.
But they said a caucus system proposed by the US, at least in the form Washington had wanted, was no longer on the table. However, the envoys believed some transfer of power would take place on June 30, and not be delayed until after elections.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a senior adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is in Iraq this week to resolve a dispute over how a provisional government would be formed in Baghdad before the US-led occupation relinquishes power to Iraqis.
The White House, after scorning the world body for months, requested Annan to intervene when an influential Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, insisted on direct elections rather than caucuses for members of a national assembly that would choose an interim government.
Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, met Sistani on Thursday. He is expected to go to Kuwait for a regional meeting today. Annan expects to give his recommendations on the election process before the end of the month.
"We are in agreement with the Sayyid [Sistani] that these elections should be well prepared and should take place in the best possible conditions so that it would bring the results which the Sayyid wants, the Iraqi people want and the United Nations wants," Brahimi told reporters.
In New York, Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the secretary-general understood there was "a consensus emerging" for direct elections as a result of talks Brahimi had with a variety of Iraqi leaders.
But Annan made clear requirements for elections would take time and Sistani understood this.
"There is wide agreement that elections must be carefully prepared, and that they must be organized in technical, security and political conditions that give the best chance of producing a result that reflects the wishes of the Iraqi electorate," Eckhard said.
The US plan calls for a series of complicated caucuses to select a legislature and then an interim government before June 30. After that, the goal was to write a constitution and hold elections by the end of 2005 for a permanent government.
legitimate government
"Everyone expects elections by 2005," Eckhard said.
"The question is what can be done before June 30 and if it can't be elections what other way can you find to establish a legitimate government," he said.
The diplomats said some transfer of power would take place on June 30 but that elections could not be held before then.
"They might possibly be able to do it by the end of the year but this is not certain," one UN envoy said.
Alternatives to the caucus system, however, have not yet been agreed upon.
Among them are expanding the current US-selected Iraqi Governing Council or forming another body made up of a sort of council of elders.
Another proposal has been for the UN to administer Iraq until elections for a permanent government could be held, a suggestion UN officials would be reluctant to accept, mainly for security reasons.
Brahimi's electoral team is the first UN international presence in Iraq since Annan pulled out foreign staff in late October after two bombing attacks against UN offices in Baghdad.
Despite US urging, Brahimi, who just returned from a two-year stint of nation-building in Afghanistan, has refused to replace Vieira de Mello as the permanent UN envoy.
Also see story:
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS