Poll date 'should be flexible'
13/02/2004 14:20  - (SA)  

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UN election team for Iraq Iraq elections soon US gives Iraq 'tough deadline' Iraq elections by mid-2004

Baghdad - The top UN envoy to Iraq said on Friday the timing of elections in the war-torn country should not be tied to a specific deadline, but that the timing should flexible to allow for good preparations.

"The timing should not be prisoner to any deadline," Lakhar Brahimi told reporters here. "We need to organise elections as early as possible but not as early as impossible."

The UN official heads a nine-member team probing the feasibility of demands from the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to hold direct elections before a June 30 transfer of power to an Iraqi authority.

Brahimi's position appears to be half-way between Sistani and the US-led coalition which argues that free and fair elections cannot be held in such a short period of time but need lengthier preparations.

The US instead proposes indirect elections based on regional caucuses.

- AFP

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