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Top Shiite cleric wants full elections in Iraq
Jordan Times, Friday, November 28, 2003
NAJAF (AFP) — The religious head of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, wants immediate elections for all Iraqi political and administrative bodies, Jalal Talabani, chairman of the US-appointed Governing Council, said Thursday. Talabani told reporters here that "Ayatollah Sistani has one reservation only" about the agreement signed by the interim Governing Council and the US-led coalition on Nov. 15 for the transfer of political power to Iraqis.
"He wants the Iraqi people to be consulted. He wants elections to be held for the municipal councils as well as the legislative council," Talabani said, speaking after a meeting with Sistani in this holy Shiite city, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad. Sistani argued that despite the lack of a reliable census or electoral register in Iraq, elections can still be held on the basis of the food ration cards distributed to the population under the regime of Saddam Hussein and that are still in use, said Talabani, a Kurdish leader.
The ration card system was started in 1991 to help the population cope with the impact of UN sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The sanctions were lifted after the US-led invasion that in April ended Saddam's 24-year rule. The blueprint agreed with the interim leadership foresees a transitional assembly selected through a complicated system of caucuses convened under coalition supervision, and operating under an interim constitution drawn up with coalition assistance.
"For Ayatollah Sistani, the current (municipal) councils were not elected, and he has requested that the occupation forces keep their promises," said Talabani.
The current municipal councils were largely designated by the coalition.
The Nov. 15 agreement, signed by Talabani on behalf of the Governing Council with the US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer, outlines a process that should be completed by the end of 2005 with a referendum on a new constitution drafted by an elected body and general elections.
In a first reaction to Sistani's position, the coalition said it was "listening" to all points of view expressed by Iraqis.
"We are in the process of establishing a democracy in this country, democracy is about listening to people and that's what we're doing," said coalition civilian spokesman Charles Heatly.
"There is a lot of dialogue," he said.
The coalition says the Nov. 15 agreement is only a broad framework for the political process towards empowering the Iraqi people and that its details should be agreed in the talks under way with the Governing Council.
The council announced earlier this week that Bremer had launched the process of drawing up a basic law for the transitional period in Iraq until a new constitution is voted on in two years' time. The basic law must be approved by Feb. 28.
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