UN urges legitimate and inclusive elections in Iraq - Summary

New York - The UN Security Council on Tuesday called for "broad participation" by all Iraqis in parliamentary elections set for March 7 in Iraq. UN special envoy for Iraq Ed Melkert told the 15-nation council that close to 19 million Iraqis will cast ballots under the watchful eyes of national as well as international observers.

"As a result of a huge collective effort, the infrastructure is in place in order to allow approximatively 18.9 million Iraqi voters to visit 48,000 polling stations on election day," Melkert said, citing support provided by the UN electoral team to Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission.

The council said in a statement after discussing the elections that Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity must be respected.

"Council members recall the importance of the preparation and the holding of elections that are free, fair, transparent, legitimate and inclusive with broad participation in order for the results to reflect the will of the Iraqi people and be accepted by them," the council said.

It stressed "the need to respect the rule of law as well as to pursue efforts of the government of Iraq towards consensus and reconciliation."

Melkert said preparations were underway to allow Iraqis living in 16 countries to also vote. Those countries include Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.

Melkert called on Iraqi parties to accept results of the elections, which he said will be the "litmus test for the success or failure of the (democratic) process" as Baghdad has taken over its sovereign rights in running the country.

Iraq's UN Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati said his government was working on a security plan to allow the elections to take place without incident despite the continued threats from al Qaeda and supporters of the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

Al-Bayati said "enemies of Iraq" killed a total of 196 civilians in January, which despite the high death toll was a drop of 56 per cent compared with the 306 people killed in December.

"The security situation in Iraq is still in continuous improvement despite attacks targeting civilians," al-Bayati said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/309588,un-urges-legitimate-and-inclusive-elections-in-iraq--summary.html.