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U.N. Official Says Iraqi Vote 'Is on Track'
Plans Described as Almost Complete Despite Continuing Violence, ThreatsThe voting lists have been checked, the ballots printed. Red stain is ready to mark the finger of each voter, and the poll locations and names of candidates -- until now secret -- soon will be published. Despite threats, a rushed timetable and the murder of eight election workers, preparations for Iraq's elections are almost finished, according to the U.N. representative on the country's elections board. "Everything is on track," Carlos Valenzuela, a veteran election organizer for the United Nations, said Sunday. "It was a very tight time frame. Luckily, there was no slippage." Iraqi election workers distribute campaign posters in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Valenzuela disputed reports that many election workers, intimidated by insurgents, have quit. Valenzuela, who has helped carry out elections in such places as East Timor, Cambodia and the Palestinian territories, said he was surprised that logistics for the Jan. 30 elections have been assembled in less than a year. He shied from questions about whether the threats of violence that are expected to keep large numbers of voters home would irreparably mar the results. "There isn't a yardstick" of turnout to pronounce the election valid, he said. "There is no magic number. At the end of the day, you have to leave it to the Iraqi public as to whether they believe this process was credible or not." snip Valenzuela and a team of about 20 U.N. experts are advising the Iraqi election commission, which includes eight Iraqi members and Valenzuela. "We have not had mass resignations" of election workers who feel threatened, he insisted, despite some reports of wholesale quitting. "I am surprised there have not been a lot more resignations because the level of intimidation from insurgents is quite high." The election workers are "some of the most courageous people I have seen," he said. Despite the deaths of eight workers, the election commission has been able to recruit workers to staff the polls and supervise the elections, he said. More than 3 million Iraqis went to election officials to correct errors in the food distribution rosters that were used as a base for preparing the voter lists, and another 1.2 million Iraqis made new registrations, he said. snip Posted by: trailing wife 2005-01-18 |
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