21 July 2003
U.N. Sends Election Assistance Team to Iraq
Wealth of U.N. experience can help, Annan says
By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Writer
United Nations -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is sending an electoral assistance team to Baghdad to determine how the United Nations can help the Iraqi people organize elections, the United Nations said July 21.
A U.N. electoral assistance mission is expected to travel to Baghdad the first two weeks in August, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said July 21 during his daily press briefing.
The spokesman gave no details on the make-up of the team.
In his report to the Security Council on Iraq which was released July 21, the secretary general said that in discussions between the Coalition Provisional Authority and U.N. Special Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. envoy said that "voter registration should begin in the near future to demonstrate that tangible steps are being taken to pave the way for elections."
"To that end, I have instructed the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs, as a matter of urgency, to send an assessment mission to Iraq to discuss with relevant Iraqi and authority counterparts the various possible modalities for electoral registration and the electoral process, including electoral laws, rules and regulations, registering political parties, and options for United Nations electoral support in those areas," Annan said.
"Although Iraqi views diverge on how quickly conditions will allow for truly participatory and representative processes, there is a widely held perception that the forthcoming constitutional and electoral processes will be of fundamental importance to the political transition," the secretary general said in his report to the council.
Annan said he believes that U.N. involvement can "confer legitimacy" on the electoral process as well as "put at the disposal of the Iraqi people the wealth of experience and expertise accrued by the United Nations in these fields over the years, including advice on meaningful human rights provisions and protection mechanisms."
The secretary general and Vieira de Mello, along with representatives of the Iraqi Governing Council, will meet with the Security Council in open session July 22.
A central concern during all the talks held by Vieira de Mello was the constitutional process, Annan also said in the report. "The Iraqis ... have emphasized that Iraqis themselves must conduct the constitutional process and that an Iraqi interim authority should be in place before such a process is begun. Some Iraqi interlocutors strongly felt that participation in the constitutional process should be determined by elections."
The international community, including the United Nations, can assist such a process by providing advice, lessons learned on different constitutional processes around the world, and technical assistance, the secretary general said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=July&x=20030721170615atia0.481518&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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