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Pachachi calls for delay in Iraq elections
A senior Iraqi Sunni Muslim politician called on Saturday for the country's elections to be put on hold, warning the results could be seen as illegitimate if large sections of the population don't vote. Adnan Pachachi, who was Iraq's foreign minister before the 1968 Baathist coup and now heads the small Iraqi Independent Democrats party, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that a delay could allow talks to be held with those who are refusing to take part in the elections. "If they are going to be held on Jan. 30 without the participation of large segments of the Iraqi population and important areas of Iraq, the elections would be seen as non-inclusive and illegitimate," Pachachi said.
| I think of it as the intransigient antidemocracy forces refusing to participate. To me, it would seem more important for them to be thinking about participating than for the other 85 percent of the country to put itself out trying to cajole them into it. |
In the election - the first democratic vote in Iraq since the country was formed in 1932 - the Sunnis are certain to lose their dominance to the Shiites, who comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population. Sunnis have repeatedly called for a boycott or postponement of the vote.
| Until they can breed more little Sunnis? |
Pachachi warned if the polls went ahead on Jan. 30, as the interim authority and US-led coalition is insisting, violence in Iraq would worsen. "That, I think, would exacerbate the situation and would really make the whole situation worse," Pachachi said.
Posted by: Fred 2005-01-09 |
