Saddam 'could vote'

2004-11-27 20:51

Baghdad - Detained former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could reap one benefit of his own downfall by voting in free polls set for January, but he will be barred from standing for re-election, an official said on Saturday.

"Theoretically, prisoners have the right to vote," said Abdel Hussein al-Hindawi, president of the electoral commission charged with organising Iraq's first free, multi-party elections in half a century, set for January 30.

Saddam has the right to vote if "his name is on the electoral list", said Hindawi.

The electoral list is based on records of who had ration cards used under the UN oil-for-food programme, which intended to help ordinary Iraqis offset the effect of sanctions meted out for Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

It is not known whether Saddam had a ration card.

However, the deposed dictator is excluded from re-running for office under an electoral law that bans anyone charged with a crime from standing as a candidate, Hindawi said.

Captured in December 2003, Saddam is in US custody, awaiting trial on at least seven charges of crimes against humanity.

But even if prisoners have the theoretical right to vote, they probably would not be able to "for technical reasons," Hindawi added.

Former members of Saddam's ruling Baath party are also barred from standing unless they first renounce their ideology in a written statement.

- AFP