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Former US president Carter questions Iraqi elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-16 13:15

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday expressed strong misgivings about Iraqi elections next month and said there was not enough security in the country for a free and safe vote.

Carter, whose nonpartisan Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, told Reuters he would not be involved in observing the Jan. 30 vote and was not optimistic about the situation in Iraq.

"I think the whole Iraqi situation has been a debacle, a very costly one. I don't see how all the rudimentary requirements for a free and safe election can be achieved in another month. How can anyone campaign? How can anyone go and vote without fear?," he said in an interview.

"They might contrive some substitute for an orthodox election by having the vote take place over several weeks or in certain little spots scattered about Iraq and not in the troubled areas.

"But there is not enough security there in my opinion to have a legitimate election. I hope I am wrong and that they have some success," he added.

A number of Iraqi secular and Sunni groups have called for the election to be postponed by up to six months because of violence in the Sunni north and west.

But Iraq's interim government, U.S. President George W. Bush and the United Nations have all reaffirmed that the poll should go ahead as scheduled.

The Carter Center was founded in 1982 to promote democracy and human rights and has mediated in conflicts in Africa, North Korea and Bosnia.

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts.



 
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