Friday, August 19, 2005

Iraqi parties demand international monitoring for the next elections.

"The next elections need to be supervised by international committees and not by the Iraqi government because the government is not neutral" said Adnan Al-Pachachi the prominent Sunni politician and former Governing Council member in an interview with Al-Mada newspaper, he adds:

We're going to press for having international monitoring over the elections and to have international protection for the fairness and transperancy of the elections.
The IECI has failed to prevent violations in several regions during the last elections.
Depending on the police forces to provide protection for the voting centers isn't a logical choice because we know how those forces were chosen and local security corps will not be neutral either…the government in general is going to be part of the electoral race so it will certainly be biased.
[..]
We need the international community to protect these elections; any doubts in its fairness could lead the nation to a disaster.

Many parties, especially those of the opposition or those who boycotted the January elections have increasing fears from manipulations or fraud in the next elections and that's why they think that having international supervision is essential to reassure both, the parties and the voters.
And I share their concerns.

No comments: