Security Chaos Scares Off Int'l Observers for Iraq Poll

"Some 200 , 000observers, mainly Iraqis, will monitor the election process nationwide," media advisor for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) Farid Ayar told IOL Wednesday, December14 .

"Many international monitoring organizations refused to send its personnel to Iraq to oversee the polls out of fear they may be killed or taken hostage."

"Most of the foreign observers will be in the northern Kurd areas as the security situation is relatively better there," he added.

Safwat Rashid, a member of the IECI Board of Commissioners, which manages the electoral process, told IOL some 700 to 800 foreign observers, mainly embassy staffers in Baghdad, will monitor the voting.

Iraqi voters will Thursday elect a Council of Representatives to a four year term. There are 307 political entities and 19 coalitions registered to contest for the 275 seats in the Council of Representatives, a website of the IECI said.

Iraqi expatriates in 15 world countries began voting Tuesday, a day after around300 , 000hospital patients, prison detainees and security forces cast their ballot at special polling stations across the country.

Five main coalition lists based largely on sectarian or ethnic lines are dominating the election campaign across Iraq.

US, EU Monitoring

On the US role in the polls, a source at the US embassy in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IOL a number of embassy staffers, officials from National Democratic Institute (NDI) of former state secretary Madeleine K. Albright, will oversee the voting.

The monitoring will be only outside the voting centers in the capital city, the source added, citing security reasons.

The European Union has said it backtracked on sending a limited delegation of observers to monitor the elections in Iraq "for security concerns".

Members of such a delegation needed special training before working in dangerous areas, a precondition which could not be met, the EU said in a statement Monday.

Meantime, Iraqi Election Information Network Iraqi Ein said it has provided training for 600 trainers to study the new election law in Iraq in a program supervised by the EU abroad.

The trainers, in turn, trained the local Iraqi election observers,22 , to 30 each.

Arab League not Invited

For its part, the Arab League (AL) ruled out it had any intention to send observers to the Iraqi elections.

"We will not send observers as we did not receive any request to this effect," AL deputy secretary general Ahmed bin Helli told IOL Tuesday.

The pan-Arab group will instead coordinate with observers sent by the UN from a number of countries to monitor the Iraqi elections, according to the Arab diplomat.

"We hope the election will be free and transparent to reflect the real aspiration of the Iraqis," he said.

Iraq's 15 . 5million voters are electing their first full-term legislature since the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime by US-led occupation forces in April2003 .

The parliament will in turn form a full-term, four-year government.

This will be the third time this year that Iraqis have gone to the polls. On January30 ,2005 , Iraqis elected a Transitional National Assembly. One of the responsibilities for the Assembly was to write a draft constitution of Iraq.

Iran-made Ballot Papers

On the ground, hundreds of thousands of blank ballots like those to be used in this week's Iraqi elections have been found on a tanker truck which entered the country from neighboring Iran, security officials told AFP Tuesday.

"A truck with Iranian number plates was intercepted Tuesday night in the locality of Badra, Wasset province, southeast of Baghdad," an official said.

Another security source confirmed the discovery and said authorities were looking for three other suspect trucks in areas east of Baghdad near the Iranian border.

"The blank ballots were probably destined to stuff the ballot boxes" in Thursday's general election, a security official said.

The ballot papers were not printed by the Iraqi Electoral Commission which is the only body authorized to supply voting materials.

http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/14/article03.shtml