Iraq elections may be spread over three weeks
Guerrillas carried out a series of raids in the Iraqi city of Samarra yesterday, stealing weapons from a police station, blowing it up, and exchanging fire with police and US troops. At least five Iraqis were killed, and the city police chief resigned.
Underscoring security concerns, the Interior Ministry backed interim Prime Ministry Ayad Allawi’s reported proposal to spread elections planned for January 30 over up to three weeks in hopes of allowing people to vote safely.
The decision ultimately belongs to Iraq’s electoral commission; a top official there said Allawi had not mentioned the idea.
Also yesterday, the US military said the number of American combat deaths in Iraq since the start of the war rose to 1,001; the latest reported was a soldier killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad on Tuesday. The total number who have died since March 2003 is 1,278.
Unofficial estimates of Iraqi casualties range from 13,000 to 30,000 Iraqi civilians killed by acts of war since the 2003 US-led invasion, by both US coalition forces and anti-US fighters and terrorists. No reliable count exists for insurgents killed.
Insurgents have threatened to target the January election and already are waging a deadly campaign against security forces and police, killing dozens of people.
The fighting in Samarra, a city 60 miles from Baghdad, began when gunmen stormed a police station, looted its armoury and then blew up the building, police said. A policeman and a child standing nearby were killed in clashes before the insurgents fled.
Resignations of top police officials and continuing assaults on police have raised questions about next month’s vote to choose a 275-seat assembly, whose primary task will be drafting a permanent constitution for this overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Several political groups representing Sunni Muslims, who make up 20 percent of Iraq’s population, are calling for the vote to be postponed.
Allawi was quoted in Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper on Tuesday as saying Iraq might consider holding the vote over three weeks to defuse the threat and better protect polling stations.
“Everyone – Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Turkomen – should be able to take part in the vote,” he was quoted as telling the newspaper. “That is why I think we can see elections spread over 15 days, or 20.”
It was the first time such a proposal had been reported publicly, and drew immediate support from the Interior Ministry, which called it “an excellent idea".
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