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UN official says Iraqi elections credible; Chalabi defeated at polls
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-29 10:21

A senior U.N. official said that Iraq's parliamentary elections were credible and the results should stand, angering Sunni Arabs who have taken to the streets demanding a new vote.

The U.N. endorsement, which came Wednesday after opposition groups demanded international intervention, was likely to deflate their calls for the elections to be canceled. It also was likely to move Sunni Arabs and secular Shiites closer to the bargaining table ahead of final results, expected to be announced next week.

Preliminary results, which gave a big lead to the ruling Shiite religious bloc, also indicated that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a former Washington insider, will not be re-elected to the new 275-member parliament, his office said.

Before the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Chalabi, then living in exile, was a favorite of the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Congress. A secular Shiite, he fell from grace after his claims that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction were discredited.

American forces last year raided Chalabi's Baghdad office after he was accused of giving U.S. intelligence to Iran, but the 60-year-old consummate insider had slowly been working his way back. Pegged as a possible prime minister before the December 15 elections, he met last month in Washington with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Craig Jenness, a United Nations official addresses a news conference organized by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Dec. 28, 2005, saying that the U.N.-led international election assistance team found the Dec. 15 contested elections for Iraq's new parliament as credible
Craig Jenness, a United Nations official addresses a news conference organized by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Dec. 28, 2005, saying that the U.N.-led international election assistance team found the Dec. 15 contested elections for Iraq's new parliament as credible. [AP]
The United Nations official, Craig Jenness, said at a news conference organized by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq that his U.N.-led international election assistance team found the elections to be fair.

"The United Nations is of the view that these elections were transparent and credible," said Jenness, a Canadian electoral expert.

Jenness said the number of complaints was less than one for every 7,000 voters. About 70 percent of Iraq's 15 million voters went to the polls.

His remarks represented crucial support for Iraqi election commission officials, who refused opposition demands to step down. They, too, said the elections were free and fair and that they would deal with the few instances of fraud and rigging of ballot boxes.

"No wide, premeditated and systematic fraud was noticed," IECI official Safwat Rashid said.

The Bush administration and many Iraqi officials hope the elections will lead to a broad-based government that will include minority Sunni Arabs as well as secular Shiites such as former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

"In our view, all communities of Iraq have won in these elections, all will have a strong voice in parliament. We hope the elections will be the start of a new process of strength and unity in Iraq," Jenness said.

One step in that direction came in western Anbar province, where a high-ranking Interior Ministry official made a rare appearance in Ramadi, considered a hot spot for Sunni-led insurgents.

Fahqer Maryosh, the No. 3 official in the ministry, met with local and U.S. military officials to discuss the reestablishment of the Iraqi police in the province, Marine Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool said.
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