Iraqi vote to be watched from afar

2004-12-24 12:17

United Nations - Most international experts assessing the fairness of Iraq's elections will monitor the January 30 vote from the safety of neighbouring Jordan, but a few observers will head to Baghdad and perhaps other Iraqi cities if security permits, UN and other officials said.

Experts putting together the international team made clear on Thursday the team will not conduct the usual on-the-ground election monitoring with hundreds of foreign observers in Iraq such as was recently seen in Afghanistan. Instead, it will be assessing the vote based on more than a dozen different criteria.

"We believe we can run a very effective operation to assess how well-run the election was even if there are not huge numbers of electoral observers on the ground," said Canada's chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who hosted a meeting in Ottawa this week of international election experts to discuss the Iraqi election.

The countries agreeing to participate in the International Mission for Iraqi Elections include Albania, Britain, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Yemen, and the Association of Central and East European electoral administrators, Kingsley said on Thursday.

Australia to participate

Australia also will participate, UN and other officials said on condition of anonymity.

Most foreign experts will be based in Amman, Jordan, the officials said, but the international mission will have high-level staff in Baghdad who will be in contact with all the key players in the January 30 election - including the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq overseeing the vote, political parties, the government, civil society groups and Iraqi election observers.

Kingsley refused to provide any details about the international mission's deployment.

"We will be very careful deploying people in known hazardous situations," he said. "We have not ruled out going into Iraq or parts of Iraq."

Assessing an election required much more than being on the ground on election day, Kingsley said.

"We're talking here about an (Iraqi) electoral commission that is known to be independent, that is well-oriented, that has support from UN personnel on the ground," he said. "This is very different than when you have a suspect electoral body."

The United Nations continues to appeal for international observers since it cannot determine the fairness of an election it helped organise.

"The presence of international observers adds an extra layer of credibility to any electoral process," UN election chief Carina Perelli said. "Therefore, what we can do is urge, call for, and plead for international groups to come to the fore.

"We not only welcome the Canadian effort but we urge other groups to come to the front and to send observers to this process."

- AP