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on schedule.” (Iraq Vote Faces Growing Troubles, Washington Post, Oct. 19.) Candidates for the 275-member national assembly have not declared themselves, and voter registration, requiring 6,000 Iraqis at 550 sites, has not even begun.
Some 120,000 people are needed to staff 30,000 polling places in January. In a serious setback that might be interpreted as a vote of no confidence, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan just announced that, due to security concerns, the U.N. is “not going to Iraq to monitor the elections in January” as it did in Afghanistan.
U S. and coalition forces have neither the resources nor the credibility do the job of insuring free and fair elections. A substantial international peacekeeping force is required, preferably from the Arab world (perhaps led by Saudi Arabia, which has made such an offer) and endorsed by the U.N.
Meanwhile, President Bush is preoccupied with his own reelection; top administration officials including his National Security Advisor are making speeches in Ohio, Florida and other “swing states.” Both political parties have recruited an army of lawyers to contest any irregularities.
If Nov. 2 does not produce a clear winner in a clean election accepted as fair and legitimate
89.2%